https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dISHoUZhZoE
Video of T.J. Donovan’s campaign kickoff.
T.J. Donovan says it’s time to bring the prisoners home.
The attorney general candidate said it is immoral to send Vermonters out of state to for-profit prisons and that if elected he would seek to cancel the contracts. Currently, approximately 300 Vermonters are serving time in a Michigan facility owned by The Geo Group, a real estate investment firm that owns more than 100 correctional centers nationwide. The state recently signed a two-year deal with the firm.
Donovan, the Chittenden County state’s attorney, said bringing back the prisoners was “the moral test of our generation in this state.”
The Burlington native made the call during his announcement speech for his second bid to be Attorney General. He lost a close Democratic Party primary race in 2012 to the current Attorney General, Bill Sorrell, who after 19 years is not seeking re-election in 2016.
Vermont has sent prisoners out of state since the administration of Gov. Howard Dean, primarily to save money and to avoid building more prisons in Vermont. In Michigan, the cost is $23,000 per inmate per year compared with $60,000 each for the roughly 2,000 prisoners in Vermont. Critics of shipping prisoners out of state say inmates are more likely to succeed if families can easily visit and some, like Donovan, question the morality of making money off what he and others think should be the state’s responsibility.
Donovan said he was unsure how quickly his plan could be implemented and needed more details on the Michigan agreement. Previously, the state sent prisoners to Virginia and Kentucky, under contracts with the Corrections Corporation of America.
Donovan told the crowd of 200 at the St. John’s Club on the Burlington waterfront that he also would make the cleanup of Lake Champlain a priority. Referring to tension over who is responsible for the pollution and the cleanup, he said “there can be no sacred cows or there won’t be any cows left in Vermont.”
Speakers at the kickoff event frequently called Donovan compassionate and the married, 41-year-old father of two said it was critical to give otherwise hard-working people “a second chance” if they make a mistake. Donovan, elected state’s attorney in 2006, has built a reputation on implementing innovative criminal justice programs that address underlying poverty issues that often go hand in hand with crime. In March, he gave drivers with suspended licenses amnesty in a one-day pilot program, in part to help poor people with unpaid traffic tickets go back to work.
Overall, he promised if elected “no more gotcha politics, no hypocrisy, just service. I will be the people’s lawyer who stands up for every Vermonter regardless of who they are or where they’re from,” adding “when they fall down, we’re going to pick them up and we’re going to get them back on their feet and help them move forward because when people are successful, this state is successful.”
Since becoming state’s attorney, Donovan has been outspoken on the depth of the state’s opiate addiction problem, which he says hasn’t peaked. He has been an advocate for additional treatment programs and not relying on the police and courts to solve the drug and associated crime problems. In the past, he promised to sue the drug manufacturers for helping to start the epidemic. In his speech, he referred to a program in Chittenden County that gets defendants addicted to drugs into treatment sooner, a program he wants to expand across the state.
Donovan, who got his law degree at Suffolk University, also said he would be an aggressive defender of Vermonter’s civil rights, particularly groups that have been typically targeted and marginalized.
The crowd was packed with a Who’s Who of Democrats, including House Speaker Shap Smith, who running for governor, Senate President John Campbell, Auditor Doug Hoffer, former Gov. Phil Hoff and Burlington Mayor Miro Wienberger, who quoted Irish poet William Yeats and praised Donovan as “part of the next generation” of leaders who had used his power as prosecutor judiciously. (In another nod to his Irish heritage, a bagpiper played as Donovan approached the podium.)
Also attending were several House and Senate members, including Donovan’s mother, Rep Johanna “Joey” Leddy Donovan, who said her son had carried on his late father’s tradition of privately helping others in need. Asked how she felt, she said: “I forgot my Thesaurus” to describe her pride. (At the end of his speech, the candidate had to ask supporters to leave when the Fire Marshal showed up and said the crowd exceeded the limit.)
Donovan comes from a prominent Burlington political family. Including his mother, his uncle, James Leddy, served in the Vermont Senate and his grandfather, Bernard Leddy, ran for governor in 1958 and finished less than 1 percent behind Republican Robert Stafford at a time when Vermont was predominantly Republican.
Donovan said the 2016 race was picking up where he left off when he ran three years ago against Sorrell and lost by 714 votes. (His grandfather lost to Stafford by 719.)
“We’ve made so much progress. We’ve changed the conversation by being creative, by being inclusive and recognizing the dignity of every person,” he said in front of a banner that did not name the office he was seeking but said simply: “TJ Donovan for Vermont.”
Sorrell did not attend. He told VTDigger in an email that he had not yet endorsed Donovan. Sorrell beat Donovan by 700 votes three years ago in a tough race. Sorrell also comes from a family with deep political roots in the Queen City and described their relationship as “cordial.”
“I want to see how the race shapes up. Clearly, he has aspired to higher office for a long time, Sorrell said. “T.J. has a good record in criminal law matters. That is important. There are many other important responsibilities and areas of practice under the authority of the AG. I had much to learn.”
No other candidates have announced.
