Nearly 150 Vermont inmates who have tested positive for Covid-19 at a prison in Mississippi appear to be receiving appropriate care, Vermont’s top prison official said Friday.
Interim Corrections Commissioner Jim Baker said he had received several updates from the two officials who traveled to Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, Mississippi, on Thursday. The two — physician Scott Strenio, a part-time medical director for the Vermont Department of Corrections, and Bob Arnell, DOC’s facilities operations manager — were scheduled to return to Vermont Friday.
Strenio “reports that he’s satisfied with the level of observation, medical care, and tracking of the medical surge at three hospitals in a 60-mile radius of the facility,” Baker said at the governor’s twice-a-week regular briefing on the Covid-19 crisis. “An early evaluation indicates that proper protocols appear to be followed, including medical isolation of 146 positive inmates.”
DOC is working closely with officials at CoreCivic, the private company that contracts with Vermont to take its inmates, to make sure they are following the steps necessary to keep all 219 Vermont inmates at the facility safe, Baker said. He added that his trust in the CoreCivic facility rose after he spoke to the company’s CEO, Damon Hininger, Thursday night.
The state announced Wednesday that 147 inmates – a number corrected Friday to 146 – had tested positive for the virus. Inmates’ families, advocacy organizations, and some lawmakers have long criticized Vermont’s practice of sending inmates out of state to ease crowding in state facilities. Last year, Vermont paid CoreCivic about $6.8 million to house its inmates. As part of its contract with the state, CoreCivic is responsible for all of the inmates’ medical costs, and Baker has declared that Covid-19 testing shouldn’t cost Vermont taxpayers anything extra.
Sixty-five of the Vermont prisoners in Mississippi tested negative for Covid-19, and eight declined testing. The eight who declined are being isolated as though they had tested positive in accordance with guidelines from the Vermont Department of Health, Baker said. The infected inmates are in lockdown.
“As of late last night, we were starting to have conversations with them about allowing people out for showers and allowing contact with family members, for phone calls,” Baker said Friday. “We have got to be assured we are following the protocols.”
The Vermont Department of Corrections is now testing all of the inmates in the state’s six prison facilities.
Baker added that he spoke to Hininger about the importance of monitoring the spread of the virus not only in the facility but in the surrounding community, and he’s confident that the company is taking the outbreak seriously. However, Baker has insisted that the entire Mississippi facility be tested, and he has not yet received confirmation that will be done.
“We as Vermont cannot order them to do something with inmates that are not ours,” said Rachel Feldman, a spokesman for the DOC. “This is an ongoing conversation. We expect to hear back quickly.”
The area of Mississippi where the prison is located has a high rate of Covid-19 infection, Baker said. “CoreCivic will not get their arms around the outbreak if they do not determine the level of spread.”
“I emphasized to Mr. Hininger that the Vermont Department of Corrections has a high level of success in keeping our six state facilities free of the virus through aggressive testing directed by Gov. Scott,” Baker said. “I also shared that we are as successful as we are thanks in a large part to a low community spread.”
Vermont has 1,393 inmates in custody, including the 219 in Mississippi. Baker said it’s unlikely the state will consider moving more inmates back to Vermont.
Baker said at a legislative hearing Thursday that he is concerned about the potential for the spread of Covid-19 at the Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland. Six inmates returning from the Mississippi prison to Rutland the week of Aug. 3 tested positive for the coronavirus, and now all the inmates at the Rutland prison are being tested.
“We do have beds here,” Baker said of Vermont, adding “we have a very well-tested quarantine system set up. We have quarantine units in each facility. And then we have medical isolation. If we get a positive test, we have to be very careful that we don’t sacrifice beds and compromise that quarantine process.”
Also at Friday’s press conference, Gov. Phil Scott announced a $12 million grants program to help child care facilities, which are seen as a critical piece of the economic recovery.
Health Commissioner Mark Levine said Vermont has hit the milestone of 100,000 Covid-19 tests, and he called Vermont’s low infection rate “reassuring.”
“Vermonters did that by staying home whenever possible, by wearing masks in public and following all the other prevention steps to stay healthy,” Levine said. “I know that for many, caution fatigue is setting in, and it’s hard to keep the regime of precautions and handwashing going. But we need to keep it up, because it’s working.”
Asked by a reporter, Scott said he hasn’t had a Covid-19 test. Levine later said he hadn’t either.
“I would rather leave those tests for others who are in need,” Scott said, noting that he follows the social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines he recommends to the public, and that he checks his temperature every day.
As he does every Friday, Mike Pieciak, commissioner of Vermont’s Department of Financial Regulation, presented some details on Covid-19 cases in Vermont and neighboring states. In reference to areas of the Northeast with less than 400 cases per million people, Pieciak said 5.2 million people can now travel to Vermont without a quarantine, up from 4.8 million last week.
He added that research over the last nearly six months of Covid-19 infection in the U.S. shows that rural areas are no safer than urban areas.
“In the beginning months of the pandemic, Covid-19 infections were far more prevalent in highly populous urban centers,” Pieciak said. “Then they spread steadily outward into suburbs and rural communities.”
New analysis shows that even very rural areas are now showing significant infection rates. “Vermonters have done an excellent job combating the virus,” he said. “It’s important to stay vigilant, since even sparsely populated rural areas like parts of Vermont can quickly be overcome by new waves of infection.”
Alan J. Keays contributed to this story.
📈 Get the latest statistics and live updates on our coronavirus page.
📫 Sign up for our coronavirus email list.
🗣️ Tell us your story or give feedback at coronavirus@vtdigger.org.
❓ Get answers to FAQs in our Covid-19 knowledge base.
🛒 See what’s open near you in our business directory.
🙏 Support our nonprofit journalism with a donation.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Corrections commissioner ‘reassured’ after officials visit Mississippi prison.