The Democratic primary for Vermont attorney general is turning into a blow by blow boxing match between a young upstart — TJ Donovan — and the reigning champion — Bill Sorrell.
This week Donovan, the Chittenden County state’s attorney, and Sorrell, the incumbent AG, were in three matchups on WDEV, CCTV and The Burlington Free Press. Each time, the candidates sparred inside the same ring of issues: Sorrell’s losses in the federal courts, his legal advice to the Legislature and consumer protection efforts; and Donovan’s court diversion initiatives for drug addicts and public access to information about criminal investigations.
Sometimes as the jabs fly back and forth it’s difficult to discern what the candidates really said. That’s because the barbs are often wrapped in rhetoric.
A new line of attack from Donovan this week was the accusation that Sorrell wants to build more jails. Sorrell disputed the assertion.
VTDigger has pulled excerpts from transcriptions of the Aug. 13 and Aug. 15 debates so that readers can decide for themselves where the differences lie.
Here are excerpts about the corrections issue from the Aug. 15 CCTV/Seven Days debate:
Donovan: “Attorney General Sorrell wants to build more jails. He said that Monday morning on the ‘Mark Johnson Show’. That is the last thing we need to do in this state. What we need to do is have early interventions working across systems to identify people who suffer from mental illness, suffer from substance abuse, and divert them from the criminal justice system.”
Sorrell: “I did not say on Monday morning that I was favoring building new jails and I don’t want to take the rest of my time up for this answer to talk about what I said on that show. … I didn’t say I support it, and I didn’t say anything about building jails or whatever, and I went on to say if we had minimum security beds, that some of the people with addiction issues or anger management issues who need counseling, then that could be this case. I never said– I didn’t say Monday, I don’t say now that we need to build more jails in this state and I don’t appreciate the distortion of what I said. I’ll stand on what’s on the tape from Monday.”
Watch the CCTV/Seven Days debate.
So who’s right? We went back to the radio debate on Aug. 13 hosted by WDEV’s Mark Johnson to get excerpted verbatim answers from the candidates themselves.
Caller: I wonder if there is any thought about kind of putting a little more bite into the sentences for people that escape from probation or parole?
Donovan: Our jails are full. We are not going to build more jails in the state … Then we have to create jail space by creating community infrastructure by creating programs like the one we have in Chittenden County, called the Rapid Intervention Community Court.
Sorrell: To do so, we’d have to take somebody out of a bed who is in there as a rapist or a robber to make room for the person coming in from FSU escape status so I don’t think we’re going to significantly enhance the penalties. Legislation enhancing the penalties there is not the answer. Perhaps some more minimum security facilities that are not brick and mortar, that are not as expensive to maintain, could be looked to but I don’t think we are going to throw people who come back on escape status from FSU back into prison or our corrections budget would go up even more and those funds would not be available for what I think are more pressing needs.
Donovan: Mr. Sorrell just said he would support or encourage looking at minimum security facilities. That’s gonna cost a lot of money, we can do it better in this state by investing in community based programs, counselors, teachers, mental health clinicians. We don’t need to build more jails. We need to do a better job of having truly early intervention.
Sorrell: The minimum security idea is just for that population that should be in state custody but doesn’t need the bricks and mortar. Those who need more anger management, addiction counseling, jobs skills training and such but who have presented enough of a risk to the state that they can’t be totally out and free. It’s a less costly means than bricks and mortar behind bars incarceration for a certain percentage of those to be in state custody. So the reality is it could be somewhat of a cost savings if the legislature wants to take a look at that. But my opponent is talking about invest, invest, invest. When you use the term invest, it costs money.
Editor’s note: Alicia Freese and Anne Galloway contributed to this report.
