[C]ivil rights groups in Vermont are saying conditions for out-of-state inmates who have been moved around the country for years, and are currently held in a Pennsylvania prison, could be “even worse” at their next destination in Mississippi.
The warning about the privately run Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility came in response to a VTDigger report on their pending move from Camp Hill, a state facility that has been fraught with problems since Vermont sent inmates there in December 2016.
The American Civil Liberties Union released a statement calling for a decrease in the state’s prison population so that out-of-state housing was not necessary, while noting that CoreCivic, the operator of Tallahatchie and the largest private prison contractor in the country, has “an extensive record of fraud and abuse.”
Vermont terminated a contract with Camp Hill early due to concerns from prisoners about overly restrictive conditions and poor treatment. Three Vermont inmates died during a two-month stretch at Camp Hill late last year, one man from lung cancer that went untreated.
James Lyall, executive director of the Vermont ACLU, said in a statement that the contract with CoreCivic in Mississippi represented “a new low” for Vermont’s use of out-of-state prisons.
“The same concerns that motivated Vermont to terminate the Pennsylvania contract apply in full to this latest contract, and Vermonters should question the wisdom of moving inmates from an unacceptable situation to one that is likely to be even worse,” he said.
ACLU community organizer Nico Amador said that the same opposition to having CoreCivic build a prison in Vermont — an idea that was raised but quickly scrapped by Gov. Phil Scott earlier this year — should extend to having the company house Vermont inmates elsewhere.
“The company has shown time and again it is among the very worst corporate actors, defrauding clients and systematically cutting corners, resulting in preventable deaths and human suffering,” he said.
Amanda Gilchrist, CoreCivic’s director of public affairs, said the Vermont ACLU “sacrifices the truth to further its political agenda.”
“CoreCivic continues to help keep communities safe, enroll thousands of inmates in re-entry programs that prepare them for life after prison, and save taxpayers millions,” she said.
The state has a history with CoreCivic. Vermont inmates were held at CoreCivic facilities in Kentucky and Arizona from 2004 to 2015. Vermont inmates were allegedly sexually assaulted by guards during that time and CoreCivic was fined for insufficient staffing and an inadequate response to violence in its prisons, the Vermont ACLU said.
Tom Dalton, executive director of criminal justice nonprofit Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform, said that while the conditions at Camp Hill have been “extremely bad,” moving from Camp Hill to Tallahatchie would be moving from “one bad situation to another.”
“I don’t think there’s much reason to hope that this Mississippi facility, that is run by a for profit with a checkered past, will be able to provide the good quality drug treatment, mental health care, education and training that incarcerated people need to be ready to succeed when they return to Vermont homes and towns,” he said.
Dalton said CoreCivic is known for lobbying for policies that will improve their bottom line by incarcerating more people, and supporting political candidates who will help them build new facilities.
Seth Lipschutz, the supervising attorney of the Prisoners’ Rights Office at Vermont’s Office of the Defender General, said that he is wary about the change but doesn’t know enough about the new facility to pass judgement. He said he is philosophically opposed to sending people out of state.
“We would rather keep more people locked up than let another couple of hundred people out and manage them on the street,” he said. “So far, although the pendulum’s been swinging the other way in the last couple of years, we don’t have the political will to do that right now as a state, and I find that to be unfortunate.”
Vermont officials visited Tallahatchie earlier this year and gave it high marks. DOC Facilities Operations Manager Shannon Marcoux said it seemed well-run and clean.
However, it has not been without problems of its own over the treatment of out-of-state prisoners.
Recent audits from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation also found the quality of medical care at Tallahatchie lacking. One audit called the facility “undesirable” and “not meeting the target performance benchmark” after California inmate Tyrone Madden, 30, died in the facility in 2015.
Legislators say there are few options for where to move the inmates, but it is clear that the current placement at Camp Hill is not working.
Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield, chair of the House Committee on Corrections and Institutions, said she was hoping that the DOC would decide to move the inmates to Rhode Island and that she is particularly concerned about how far away the Tallahatchie facility it.
But she said legislators are hearing that inmates would rather be at a facility run by CoreCivic than at Camp Hill, she said.
“I know offenders currently housed out of state were at a CoreCivic facility previous to Camp Hill, and they have indicated they would prefer to go back to a CoreCivic-run facility,” she said.
Emmons also said legislators should focus on making space for more beds for inmates in Vermont so they can be kept in state. She added she has not seen a signed contract and is only hearing about the move through media reports.
The Department of Corrections said it finalized negotiations with one of two facilities on Aug. 27 and plans to move the inmates in October, but has declined to say where the prisoners would move, citing a state statute regarding contracts.
However, the state tipped its hand in a list of frequently asked questions prepared by the DOC stating that the same phone system that inmates currently use, Inmate Calling Solutions, would be available after the transfer.
CoreCivic’s Tallahatchie facility uses Inmate Calling Solutions. The other facility that bid for Vermont’s prisoners, Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation in Rhode Island, does not.
