Prisons and Facilities
[T]im Ashe, the presumptive president pro tem of the Senate, expects the Senate Judiciary Committee will take a look at policies concerning prisoners in Vermont correctional facilities with mental health issues and the aging incarcerated population.
Several recent court cases challenged the DOC for the way prisoners with significant mental illness are treated. Many raise issue with a controversial unit at Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield, where people in mental health crises are held isolated in their cells for up to 23 hours a day.
In one case, investigated by the Human Right Commission, an 18-year-old man diagnosed with developmental disabilities and multiple significant psychiatric conditions was held in isolation for more than two years.
In a separate Disability Rights Vermont lawsuit, settled in August, the DOC agreed to make several policy changes, including ensuring that people housed in a correctional facility who are in need of acute psychiatric care will be transferred to a hospital as soon as possible. In the interim, mental health clinicians will see the individual twice a day to monitor their condition.
The Joint Legislative Justice Oversight Committee heard testimony on treatment of prisoners with mental illness over the summer and fall, and tasked the heads of several state departments with compiling recommendations for improving the issue. Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee in the last biennium, and others expect lawmakers will consider the matter in the coming legislative session.
Lawmakers will also be looking at the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center, the only locked facility in the state for juvenile justice and treatment.
The aging facility, operated by the Department for Children and Families, will lose funding from the federal government because of a change in policy about locked residential facilities.
Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield, a longtime member of the House Institutions and Corrections Committee, said that the issue will be considered by three additional House panels, including Appropriations, Human Services and Judiciary.
Marijuana
After the Senate bill failed in the House multiple times last year, Sears, a leader of the effort, said that any move to legalize in the coming session would need to originate in the House.
Several House members are part of the Joint Legislative Justice Oversight Committee, the panel that took six full days of testimony on legalization during the summer and fall.
Rep. Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, the Democratic nominee for House speaker, expects the issue will come up.
“I think we’re going to have a discussion about it,” she said.
She listed factors outside of Vermont that she thinks could influence the conversation, including the changing federal administration and the passage of legalization in Massachusetts and Maine.
“It’s not my top priority for that committee, but I recognize it as conversation that is happening with or without us, so we need to be a part of it,” Johnson said.
Sears was uncertain about the prospects of legalization.
“I think it’s the right policy for Vermont to move ahead,” he said. “Whether or not it’s going to have the votes in the House and the support of the governor, that all remains in question.”
Aside from legalization, there will likely be a couple of separate measures on pot. Sears said he expects the Senate Judiciary Committee will work with Senate Health and Welfare on legislation to expand the medical marijuana system. He also anticipates there will be a bill looking at drug-impaired driving.
Courts: Juvenile justice and geographic equality
Committees in both chambers are expecting to spend time looking at how the court system functions in Vermont.
Sears hopes to build upon legislation passed year that changed how young offenders are handled in the criminal justice system.
Lawmakers are likely to consider changing court system policies for young people between the ages of 18 and 20, Sears said.
Ashe, D/P-Chittenden, said the juvenile justice work the Legislature undertook last year was viewed as part of a “phasing” of changes.
“There’s more work to be done there, so I think that’s going to be a particular emphasis,” Ashe said. He noted that changes in juvenile justice could potentially help to reduce the number of prisoners the state houses at a correctional facility run by GEO Group in Michigan.
Johnson said her top priority for the House Judiciary Committee will be looking at how judicial resources vary throughout the state.
Johnson said she hopes the committee devotes time to “making sure that we have equal access to justice throughout the state, and making sure that we are applying resources as best we can so courts are functioning as well as they can.”
