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Leaders of prisoner advocacy groups are continuing to press top officials with the Vermont Department of Corrections to reduce the state’s incarcerated population in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, including releasing some, especially those at risk.
The groups, which included the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform, took part in a conference call Thursday with interim Corrections Commissioner James Baker and other members of his staff.
Those groups, and others, have been calling on the corrections department and the Scott administration to release as “many inmates as possible,” but especially those most at-risk to contract the coronavirus, such as older inmates and those with medical conditions.
“There were no blanket statements that they were going to be releasing older folks or folks who are immune compromised at this point,” Falko Schilling, Vermont ACLU policy director, said Thursday following the meeting.
“They did discuss some of the considerations they are looking at in terms of release,” Schilling said. “We do highly encourage them to continue to look at how they can use things like furlough statuses as a way to reduce the number of people who are currently incarcerated.”
Among those considerations corrections officials discussed, Schilling said, are releasing inmates who have served their minimum sentence, but are being held due to a lack of approved housing.
Corrections officials, Schilling said, talked of “possibly lowering the standards of what they would need in terms of adequate housing to be released. That was a positive step.”
Baker, the DOC commissioner, speaking Thursday afternoon following the meeting, reiterated what he has said in recent days about actions the department has taken in response to COVID-19.
Those steps, he said, include no longer allowing in-person visits for prisoners, but permitting visits over a video system. In addition, the commissioner said, there has been stepped up screening of new inmates coming into the facilities.
Baker said though the corrections department isn’t furloughing certain categories of prisoners as advocacy groups have suggested, the numbers inside the facilities are dropping as fewer are coming in.
As of Thursday afternoon, he said, the state’s inmate population totaled 1,592, 36 fewer inmates than had been counted Wednesday afternoon when he briefed the Senate Judiciary Committee in a conference call.
Also, the inmate population Thursday is 79 fewer that the Vermont prisoner count from Feb. 24, according to Baker.
“The number is going down,” Baker said. “Less people are coming into the system.”
He added. “We’re not doing all this. A lot of this is state’s attorneys going back and looking at cases. I have no influence on that.”
Attorney General TJ Donovan also issued a statement Thursday stating that of the criminal cases his office is prosecuting, only a handful have resulted in the pre-trial detention of inmatess.
Those cases, he added, include the most serious crimes, like murder and child luring.
The attorney general added that he spoke to Baker on Thursday and offered “support and assistance to DOC as they find ways to safely manage and protect their inmate population.”
The meeting Thursday between Baker and the advocates included discussion about older inmates, such as those who are over 60, as well as those prisoners who have medical conditions that could put them at risk with COVID-19.
“In a lot of those cases, there are victims involved in those crimes,” Baker said. “It’s easy to say that they should be furloughed, but I also have to consider victims. It’s not as simple as it sounds.”
Also, he said, in some cases, if released, the inmates would have no places to go or may be put in medical limbo due to lack of services outside the facility.
Baker said that he intends to work with the advocacy groups “collaboratively” to help resolve housing issues that could lead to release of some inmates.
He added that as of noon Thursday no inmates had shown symptoms of COVID-19 that would warrant testing for the virus under current Vermont Department of Health protocols, and no inmate has tested positive.
The advocacy groups have also called widespread testing of all the inmates, which Baker said he understood, but it can’t currently be done due to the lack of supply of the test.
“That’s just the reality of it,” the commissioner said.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Advocacy groups continue push for release of some inmates.