Defender General Matt Valerio. File photo by Elizabeth Hewitt/VTDigger
After an investigation into an incident at an out-of-state prison that houses Vermont inmates, a leading state official said he is not concerned.
Two attorneys from the prisoners’ rights division of the defender general’s office traveled to Michigan last week to investigate a smattering of reports about conditions, including some reports that inmates were left without clothing and food.
Defender General Matt Valerio said Monday that based on interviews the attorneys conducted with inmates and management at the North Lake Correctional Facility, which is owned by the GEO Group, “That is not what happened at all.”
According to Valerio, a search for contraband during a fire drill May 25 led some inmates to resist. Some used mattresses to try to block guards from entering, which prompted the guards to use pepper spray, according to Valerio. During the evacuation, some prisoners broke part of the sprinkler system, which required temporarily shutting off the water to that unit, he said.
Valerio emphasized that the event involved a small group of people. About half a dozen were involved directly, he said. Though two inmates did miss a regularly scheduled meal, those people were provided food, he said.
“The vast majority of the facility didn’t even know it was going on,” Valerio said. There were “200-plus people who had nothing to do with this,” he added.
Facility employees did locate some contraband during the search, including cellphones, he said.
“These things tend not to happen in Vermont” because training for correctional officers in the state emphasizes de-escalation of incidents, he said.
Valerio said there are significant “cultural differences” between conditions in Vermont prisons and in the private prison, and those differences can have a big impact on the prisoners.
“The vast majority of these people are going to get out,” Valerio said, “and how you are dealt with in prison directly affects how you are going to respond when you are on the outside.”
He noted that the GEO Group makes some management decisions that his office and the Vermont Department of Corrections do not agree with. In the prison in Baldwin, Michigan, prisoners who are in segregation for disciplinary reasons are held in the same unit as those in segregation for administrative reasons, which can include things like medical or psychiatric needs.
“Any facility that is well-run has at least two different types of segregation,” Valerio said. He went on to say that it’s “not good to mix the two groups.”
A member of Valerio’s office is scheduled to report on the team’s findings at the North Lake Correctional Facility before the Joint Legislative Justice Oversight Committee later this week.
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