The Rutland jail and the state’s only prison for women have among the highest costs per inmate in the country, according to an expert hired to look at Vermont corrections facilities.
The Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland is estimated to cost $70,543 to house an inmate in fiscal year 2021, according to Jeff Goodale of the HOK Group, the company hired by the state to conduct the study.
The Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington has an estimated cost of $62,914 to house an inmate for fiscal year 2021, Goodale told members of the Senate Institutions Committee during a briefing Thursday.
“Chittenden and Marble Valley, at an average daily cost for an inmate of $172 at Chittenden and $193 for Marble Valley — those are among the most expensive in the country,” he said.
Goodale said the national average cost of housing an inmate is $30,000 to $35,000 a year.
He attributed the high cost of the Rutland and South Burlington facilities to aging infrastructure, which necessitates additional staffing, and the small sizes of the two facilities compared with other prisons nationally.
Rutland can accommodate 118 inmates while Chittenden Regional’s capacity is 177.
The annual expense to house inmates at Vermont’s four other facilities is as follows:
- Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans costs $54,427 annually, or $149 a day per inmate;
- Northeast Correctional Complex in St. Johnsbury costs $53,535, or $147 a day;
- Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield costs $45,065, or $123 per day;
- Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport, the state’s largest facility with a capacity of 433 prisoners, costs $33,464, or $92 per day.
Goodale presented the first phase of his company’s review to the Senate Institutions Committee on Thursday. He walked the committee through a PowerPoint presentation of statistics and budget figures, including tens of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance at the state’s six correctional facilities.
This phase of the study sets a baseline for costs, Goodale said. The next step is for the company to lay out future options for Vermont correctional facilities, including whether to develop one big central complex, to have fewer regional facilities and build additions onto the remaining ones, or to build a central complex and maintain existing regional correctional centers.
Phase two of the company’s recommendations will be available in the coming weeks.
“We’ll talk about our analysis and our recommendations,” he said. “I think that’s the opening of dialogue about the direction of the future.”
Sen. Dick Mazza, D-Grand Isle, said in the past there has been stiff opposition to combining facilities into one corrections complex, but the time is right to start the conversation again.
Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia and the committee’s chair, said he understands the issue is complicated, pointing to the ongoing talk about how to replace the aging and deteriorating women’s prison.
“It is a subject and conversation that is generating some heat,” he said.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Rutland jail, women’s prison are among the costliest prisons in the country.
