When Vermont signed a contract nearly two years ago to house its out-of-state prisoners in a privately run Mississippi facility, corrections officials trumpeted a key provision that called for those inmates to be treated based on the policies that guide in-state prisons.
But, when the state had an opportunity to put that provision into action to help prevent the spread of Covid-19 in that prison, it did not demand that CoreCivic, the operator of the Mississippi facility, implement the same testing protocols in place at Vermont correctional centers.
Of the 219 Vermont inmates held at the Mississippi prison, partial results released over the weekend have shown that 85 prisoners are positive for Covid-19, and the state is awaiting the results for the remaining inmates.
Pressed during a Tuesday press conference on why the state hadn’t called on CoreCivic to do more widespread testing earlier, as has been done in Vermont, Gov. Phil Scott took the blame.
“Looking back, we should have pressed harder on them to do this, but it was just a shortcoming on our part,” Scott said.
“We should have seen this coming,” the governor later added. “I don’t know how to be any more clearer than that.”
Mass testing of Vermont inmates at the Mississippi prison didn’t take place until late last week, after six inmates returning to Vermont from Mississippi, as well as one who remains at that out-of-state facility, all tested positive for Covid-19.
The Mississippi outbreak is already larger than the total number of cases, 48, confirmed among Vermont’s roughly 1,400 prisoners since the pandemic degan; 45 of those cases were from one outbreak at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.
Those who have already tested positive in Mississippi are being housed in a separate housing unit at the Mississippi facility and, according to corrections officials, their conditions have not required care beyond what is available at the prison.
Following that outbreak in early April, the state enhanced its protocols for Covid-19 testing in its prisons, moving from only testing those inmates showing symptoms (the current policy in CoreCivic’s Mississippi facility) to mass testing of all prisoners and staff at each facility to help detect cases before a large outbreak occurs.
Since that time, the state has been doing mass testing of its six in-state prison facilities at a rate of about one per week. However, the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, Mississippi, where Vermont is currently sending its out-of-state inmates, was not part of that rotation.
Joanne Newell of Ferrisburgh said she learned Monday that her son Shawn Newell, who has been incarcerated in the Mississippi facility for almost two years, is among the inmates there who tested positive for Covid-19.
“They should have all been tested much earlier,” she said Tuesday, adding that inmates in Mississippi should receive the same treatment as those being held in Vermont.
“They all need to come back, somewhere where they care,” Newell said. “To me, they have plenty of room for them, they should be cared for in their own state.”
Newell said she talks to her son by phone almost daily, and he has repeatedly complained about the lack of supplies, such as hand sanitizer, available to inmates at the CoreCivic facility.
“My thoughts are that they don’t really take care of them down there,” she said.
CoreCivic, following the protocols of the state of Mississippi, was only testing those inmates showing symptoms of Covid-19 — like Vermont had been doing before the St. Albans outbreak. As of last week, CoreCivic had only conducted two tests of Vermont prisoners held at that Mississippi prison, both coming back with negative results.
“We had assumed their protocols were working, there weren’t any cases being reported to us,” Scott said Tuesday, “We assumed what they were doing was working for them.”
A key provision of the state’s contract with CoreCivic appears to show that, if Vermont asked for more widespread testing in Mississippi back in April, the company would have had to comply.
That part of the contract was added in response to problems that arose when Vermont had been sending its out-of-state inmates to the Camp Hill State Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania. That contract ended early, after state officials voiced concerns over the health care treatment of inmates at the facility.
The Scott administration said it couldn’t implement its own rules at that Pennsylvania facility, because the prison fell under the state-run Pennsylvania correctional system. The contract with a private prison operator didn’t present the same roadblock.
“This facility is not operated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections system,” stated a press release issued by the Vermont Department Corrections in September 2018 announcing the new contract with CoreCivic.
And as a result, according to the release, “The contract with CoreCivic allowed for Vermont to include adherence to our laws, rules and policies as part of the agreement.”
Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, did not directly respond to a question sent Monday asking if the company would have conducted more widespread testing of Vermont inmates at the Mississippi prison earlier had it been asked.
Instead, he wrote in an email response, the Mississippi facility is following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “and we’re continuing to work closely with Vermont officials to enhance procedures as needed.”
Mike Smith, Vermont Agency of Human Services secretary, said at Tuesday’s press conference that CoreCivic was “slow” to implement the same testing protocols as in Vermont, especially as the spread of the virus throughout Mississippi accelerated.
Mississippi Covid-19 cases are rising faster than almost any other state in the country, with Tallahatchie County, home of the CoreCivic prison, among the hardest hit counties in that state, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In addition, Covid-19 outbreaks had earlier been detected at other correctional facilities in Mississippi, and others operated by CoreCivic in Arizona and Tennessee.
“Slow to me means that they weren’t following what we were following,” Smith said of CoreCivic.
However, Smith said he didn’t immediately know when the state first asked CoreCivic to implement the same protocols as in Vermont, adding, “we needed to do a better job to stay on top of that, and we did not.”
Asked if it was CoreCivic’s responsibility to implement the Vermont protocols, or the state’s duty to make the request, Smith replied that it is both.
“If you are a contractor and you have a contract that says that you are going to abide by the rules and regulations of that certain entity, then yeah, I do expect that,” he said.
“At the same,” he added, “I also expect the Department of Corrections to make sure that they are following those rules.”
Later Monday afternoon, Rachel Feldman, a spokesperson for the state Department of Corrections, said in an email the state DOC ordered CoreCivic to test all Vermont inmates on Thursday, July 30.
That is the same day the corrections department issued a news release stating that the six Vermont inmates who returned to the state from the Mississippi facility had tested positive for Covid-19.
Currently, Feldman added, the state corrections department is working on a “TCCF-specific COVID-19 protocol and will ensure full comprehension of and compliance with that guidance.”
The inmates who have tested positive for Covid-19 in Mississippi are being held in a housing unit separate from the other Vermont inmates. Corrections officials say those inmates have not shown symptoms that would require a higher level of care than provided at their current prison.
For more than two decades, Vermont has been sending prisoners it didn’t have capacity to hold in its prisons to out-of-state facilities. The practice has drawn criticism from many, including some lawmakers, prisoners’ rights groups and family members of inmates sent far away.
Interim Corrections Commissioner James Baker, who took over the post in January, well after the initial two-contract with CoreCivic was signed, said Monday he couldn’t comment whether the state would seek a renewal when the current agreement expires in October.
Last month, Vermont corrections officials said they were negotiating with CoreCivic on a one-year renewal of that contract.
Both Scott and Smith, speaking at Tuesday’s press conference, talked about their support for the construction of a new prison facility in Vermont, one large enough to ensure that prisoners would no longer have to be sent out of state.
Scott also acknowledged the proposal, which has been pitched in the past by the governor, was not “well-received” by lawmakers, as well as others, who say the state needs fewer prisoners, not a new prison.
Colin Meyn contributed reporting
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Read the story on VTDigger here: ‘We should have pressed harder,’ governor says of testing after prison outbreak.