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Vermont Agency of Human Services Secretary Mike Smith said the state prison system is taking steps in response to COVID-19, but there are no plans to release any prisoners as some advocacy groups have suggested.
“We cannot allow a case to come into the correctional facility,” Smith said Wednesday morning during a press conference held by Gov. Phl Scott.
The Agency of Human Services oversees the Department of Corrections.
Groups, such as the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, have called on the Scott administration to take a number of steps in response to the coronavirus, including the release of certain inmates, such as those with health issues or those older than 60 who are deemed low risk to reoffend.
Also, they are seeking the release of inmates who are eligible for parole and community supervision or release, as well as those currently incarcerated for technical parole or probation violations.
Other states, including California, are taking measures including releasing some prisoners, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Smith said corrections staff are taking steps, including the screening of inmates as they enter the facility to determine if they have symptoms for COVID-19. Anyone showing symptoms of the virus, he said, would not be allowed into a facility.
“We’re being pretty stringent on making sure that those screening processes are happening on entrance,” Smith said.
Asked if the corrections department is considering releasing inmates who may have conditions that make them “vulnerable” to COVID-19, Smith replied, “At this moment in time, given the fact where we are right now, the answer is no.”
The corrections department, Smith added, has bumped up its stock of supplies and are no longer allowing in-person visits with inmates, moving to video visits with friends and family.
James Lyall, executive director of the ACLU of Vermont, said Wednesday that his organization sent a letter to Smith last week outlining their concerns. On Wednesday morning, Lyall said, the Vermont ACLU sent a follow-up letter to Gov. Phil Scott.
‘It’s much safer to have people not in close quarters,” he said. “We have to do everything that we can to reduce the prison population now.”
Interim Corrections Commissioner James Baker provided an update Wednesday afternoon to the Senate Judiciary Committee in a conference call.
Baker said the department has been working with parties across the criminal justice system, from the judiciary to police and prosecutors, to help reduce the number of new prisoners coming into the facility.
And in the past few weeks, he said, there has been a reduction in Vermont’s prisoner population. For example, he said, on Feb. 24 there were 1,671 inmates, including some 250 held out-of-state in Mississippi.
That inmate population number, Baker said, has since dropped to 1,628.
“You can see the numbers slowly going down,” he said.
Baker said by the middle of next week he expected that the staffing inside the facilities will begin to be “stressed.” He added certain probation and parole officers who are certified as correctional officers will go back to work in the facilities.
“The lower the inmate population, the better we can manage staff,” Baker said.
The commissioner also said he is meeting Thursday with officials with prisoner advocacy groups to discuss the possibility of releasing certain inmates.
“I hear a lot about the medical folks,” he said. “It’s easy to say release on medical furlough, but I’ve got to tell you I’d be worried about the level of care they would get outside.”
Baker added, “it’s not as simple as people are making it sound, and in some cases, people have nowhere to go.”
He said at this time he did not want to see an increase in the homeless population.
“That’s going to be part of my conversation with the advocacy community tomorrow,” the commissioner said, “because I think we’re going to have to elicit their help to find certain places for people to land if we put a plan in place that is supported by the administration.”
Chief Superior Judge Brian Grearson told the committee during that conference call Wednesday that the corrections department provided him with a list of people currently being detained pretrial. Grearson said he planned to go over that list with officials with the state Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs as well as the Vermont Defender General’s office.
“We’ll see if there are folks that we can move out of there,” Grearson said.
John Campbell, executive director of the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs, told the panel that prosecutors across the state have been “inundated” with motions brought by defense attorneys seeking emergency bail hearings for their clients.
He said the listing shows there are 27 inmates being held for either a lack of a responsible adult to take them in, or are being held for bail under $1,000.
“Certainly there are some that if we were able to make sure that they have some available housing, proper housing, in order to protect them, it would be fine to go ahead and release them,” Campbell. “There are others that have serious issues that I think a general release into the community would absolutely jeopardize the safety of those in the community where they’re released.”
Campbell did say he has asked state’s attorneys across the state to evaluate each case in light of the COVID-19 situation and make recommendations on whether cash bail can be removed.
During the conference call Wednesday, Campbell also raised another issue, a fear of the possibility of an increase in domestic violence cases as people are spending more time in their homes and dealing with rising stress.
“We have a major concern about that,” he said.
Lyall, of the Vermont ACLU, said after the Senate Judiciary Committee conference call Wednesday afternoon that he was encouraged to hear about some of the steps currently being taken to keep people from being incarcerated.
“It also sounds like there is much more that can be done,” he added. “We need to make sure that police, prosecutors, courts, the department of corrections, everybody is doing everything they can to prevent a public health catastrophe.”
Ed. Note — This story was updated at 4:40 pm Wednesday with testimony from Corrections Commissioner James Baker.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Smith: No prisoners to be released at this time.