Windsor wants a plan for local prison’s future

(This story is by Jordan Cuddemi, of the Valley News, in which it first appeared June 3, 2017.)

WINDSOR — Windsor area officials say they are hopeful a measure in the state budget approved by the Legislature will secure some sort of a future for Southeast State Correctional Facility, the most costly prison in the state to run per inmate.

Gov. Phil Scott wanted to close the Windsor-based prison in his budget proposal earlier this year. The version passed by the Legislature and now on Scott’s desk proposes turning the 101-year-old facility into transitional housing for inmates who are preparing to re-enter the community.

“I think it is a valuable facility, and I would hate to see that lost,” state Rep. Paul Belaski, D-Windsor, who sits on the House Corrections and Institutions Committee, said Friday.

The plan’s fate is somewhat up in the air as Scott is poised to veto the budget in a dispute over health insurance for Vermont teachers.

But if the budget language that lays out the plan for the Windsor facility ultimately becomes law, the 100-bed prison on State Farm Road could become a “re-entry facility,” with $200,000 for that purpose.

Just how the facility would be run hasn’t yet been discussed. It would be the subject of a report the Department of Corrections would put together and hand over to the Joint Legislative Justice Oversight Committee in November, said Director of Correctional Facilities Mike Touchette.

He acknowledged the Windsor prison is costly at $83,000 per year per inmate and that restructuring “makes sense.”

Touchette added: “I think anything we can do to improve re-entry services makes an awful lot of sense.”

The high price tag comes from operational costs, he said. There aren’t a lot of inmates being housed in Windsor, but those who are there need the same types of services that inmates at other prisons get, such as medical care.

As of now, 85 of the 100 beds are occupied, he said.

As written, the budget calls for the Department of Corrections to use the Windsor property to prepare four types of inmates for their return to life after incarceration: inmates who don’t have housing to go to when they leave prison; moderate- to high-risk inmates who are either past their minimum release date or within 90 days of it; inmates who are eligible for reintegration furlough; and inmates who have served a significant sentence and are within six months of their release date.

The facility would offer them several pre-release services, including employment readiness, money management and substance abuse treatment.

State Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor, said the idea of repurposing the facility, versus closing it, was “good news.”

“It isn’t perfect in some ways, but it keeps it as an even more viable part of the corrections system,” Clarkson said of the transitional housing plan. “From our perspective in Windsor and my district, we don’t want the state to just walk away and lock the door.”

The prison has been in town since 1916, and long operated as a prison farm. More than 800 acres recently were transferred to the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, but the prison property still includes more than 120 acres.

In 2012, the Vermont National Guard armory in town was shuttered, and Clarkson said she feared the same would happen to the prison.

She wasn’t alone. Several Windsor area officials said they hoped there would be a plan in place for the building, even if the prison closed.

“The main concern that we around Windsor County have is if the thing shuts down, you can’t just mothball it,” said state Rep. John Bartholomew, D-Hartland, who was in agreement that transitional housing makes sense. “It will deteriorate and become an eyesore. We want there to be a plan.”

Windsor Town Manager Tom Marsh said neither he nor the Selectboard has taken a formal stance on what they hope happens to the facility.

His primary desire, he said, was for state officials to keep the town in the loop “so we are not the last ones to know.”

Some questions still remain, Marsh said, such as whether work crews that the town has utilized for years would be eliminated, and the type of inmates who would be reintegrated into society in Windsor.

“If it closes, we expect to be informed of the details and the process for decommissioning or the use of the building,” Marsh said. “We want to see that there is a plan for that and not just a ‘look at the cost savings’ and walk away.”

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