NEWS

Advocates: All inmates should stay in Vermont

Elizabeth Murray
Free Press Staff Writer

Criminal-justice-reform advocates say a recent Corrections Department decision to relocate out-of-state inmates to Michigan is “completely unnecessary” and “a move in the wrong direction.”

Corrections’ two-year contract with GEO Group was announced last week. The change means Vermont inmates housed in Kentucky and Arizona will be moved to the North Lake Correctional Facility on Baldwin, Mich., during the year’s second quarter.

Vermont will save $653,474 annually, the Corrections Department says.

Advocates say the state’s decision to enter into the new private prison contract is “highly disappointing.” According to a 2014 study performed by Texas-based Grassroots Leadership, Vermont is one of four states to house some inmates out of state at privately run jails.

Suzi Wizowaty, executive director for Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform and a former state representative, said the distance is “prohibitive” for many families. Wizowaty said her goal is to have all of Vermont’s prisoners incarcerated in state.

“There is a great deal of evidence that a very strong predictor of successful reentry is people’s ability to maintain relationships with their families and community, and that’s obviously harder to do when you’re far away,” Wizowaty said. “There’s no public oversight of private prisons, and the DOC tries to do the best they can, but it’s obviously harder to provide oversight and harder to get information when something happens.”

Out-of-state inmates make up about 22 percent of the state’s prison population, said Corrections Facilities Director Mike Touchette. The Department of Corrections is revising its out-of-state placement protocol, which DOC Commissioner Andy Pallito said most likely will result in the incarceration outside Vermont of men with longer sentences, no programming or educational needs and low-cost medical needs. Pallito said he expects a draft of the protocol by early June.

Until then, out-of-state inmates are a mix of this profile and those with other sentences who have passed their minimum sentence.

The Corrections Department has in custody the lowest number of in-state prisoners since 2002, and the fewest out-of-state prisoners since 1999, Touchette said last week. Pallito said there were 318 inmates housed out of state on Monday, but only 298 by the end of the week as several had been transported back.

“We are making good progress toward reducing the number of inmates out-of-state,” he said. “We still have work to do, and we’re continuing to work on how to improve our systems and community resource support for offender reentry, but I think we’re making great progress. We would like to have our inmates in-state too, and I think we’re doing our best to try and do that to the extent we are able to.”

Touchette said the Corrections Department has the same goal, but there are obstacles in the way — the biggest being money.

“We would need to either expand an existing facility by about 300 beds, or build a new facility,” Touchette said. “A conservative estimate for the construction of a new correctional facility is between $150,000 and $170,000 per cell.”

Touchette added that expanding a facility would depend on a number of variables, including mental-health services, prison custody levels, negotiations with towns for Act 250 issues and more.

“This would require legislative and governor support,” Touchette said. “Especially with the dollar figure attached to this as well, it’s something that’s going to need legislative support to do that. The funding for that would have to come through state coffers.”

Touchette said sending inmates out of Vermont “manages our population as safely as possible” in the meantime. There are no ongoing initiatives by the Corrections Department for finding a place for a new facility.

Wizowaty said advocates are supportive of the greater ability for inmates to video chat with family members from the Michigan facility. However, she said there are things that can be done in the short term to help people get out of prison.

This includes limiting the tendency to base conditions of release for defendants on behavior. Wizowaty said avoiding curfews or restrictions on alcohol use — unless those requirements are logical based on the person’s offense — would help reduce the number of people in prison, because many are sent back to prison for violating strict conditions of release.

“This is not a DOC problem. This is a responsibility that is shared by the court, by DOC, by state’s attorneys and by the Legislature,” Wizowaty said. “We could do this within a year or two.”

Contact Elizabeth Murray at 651-4835 or emurray@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/LizMurraySMC.