[A]manda Sorrell has done “a lot of time” in prison over the last 15 years. She’s been incarcerated at four different facilities, but what she saw at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, she said, was “the worst of the worst.”
At a panel hosted by the Vermont Women’s March and ACLU-VT Wednesday night on the conditions at Chittenden Regional, Sorrell talked about how the state could address the problems at the prison. She is one of a number of activists who are arguing that the facility — Vermont’s only women’s prison — should be closed permanently.
“This place is just not working,” Sorrell said.
The discussion was held the day before Department of Corrections staff met with prisoners at Chittenden Regional, an event planned following media reports of complaints about conditions at the facility.
“We wanted to come first hand to understand what those issues are,” DOC Commissioner Mike Touchette said Thursday.
Since January 2018, 1,444 grievances have been filed by inmates in the facility — including 117 complaints about denied medical care.
But the Department of Corrections is refusing to release grievance records, according to Alan Keays, VTDigger’s criminal justice reporter, who spoke on the panel. He has requested that those complaints be made public, but the Department of Corrections has denied the request.
Chief among Sorrell’s concerns is access to medical care in the facility. Though some women are released and recover on the outside, Sorrell said, those who stay behind bars are often medically neglected, sometimes fatally so. Medical treatment at the prison came under scrutiny in the death of 43-year-old Annette Douglas in 2015.
Another panelist, Kim Jordan, a parallel justice specialist who’s spent many years working inside Chittenden Regional, said almost all the women in the prison are survivors of some kind of trauma. Incarceration perpetuates that trauma, she said.
The prisoners have no real way to speak out about mistreatment, Jordan said. They can file a grievance, but as Keays and Sorrell pointed out, the complaints don’t have much impact.
“Grievances don’t boil down to shit,” Sorrell said. “They literally boil down to nothing. You essentially can throw them in the garbage.”
While in prison, she worked to help Chittenden Regional inmates file grievances. There are seven incremental levels of grievances that can be filed, with a top level grievance taking six months to be processed. Sorrell said the system is designed to wear inmates down with red tape and bureaucracy, not to actually address complaints.
Beyond the issues with the complaint system are the conditions women experience within the facility. Sorrell spoke about a lack of access to counseling services in CRCF, something the women desperately need. Jordan also said the facility has had “really problematic” plumbing. At times women use toilets that don’t flush and go without running water.
“It takes a huge amount of effort to get even a tiny change made [in the criminal justice system],” said panelist Suzi Wizowaty, a former state legislator and the former head of Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform. “My biggest concern is that we would continue to get bogged down in these small tweaks and not address the larger issue, which is to get rid of these damn prisons altogether.”
Jordan, a justice specialist, said the prison’s staff and administration do the best they can, and activists’ attention should be focused at the central office in Waterbury.
“When you hear about stuff that’s going on at the prison, don’t shy away from it, make it your problem,” Sorrell said. “Because the people on the other side of that wall are suffering every day, and they have a chance at a better life, but they need you.”
Touchette, the corrections commissioner, said during meetings with inmates at the prison Thursday, women raised issues about access to recreation, the size of common spaces, and opportunities for exercise. There were also requests to have more freedom around clothing, perhaps allowing women to have a sweatshirt or sweatpants from home.
Touchette acknowledged that there have been complaints about the timeliness of medical care. Different medical situations are treated with varying levels of urgency, he said. In some cases, for less pressing situations —like a toothache — a prisoner may need to wait a few days to see a doctor, which he said is similar to conditions outside of a facility.
While mental health counseling is available, women have complained about access. The DOC needs “to try to find a balance” between what inmates say they need, and what is possible within the department’s resources, Touchette said.
Meanwhile, in response to complaints about the effectiveness of the grievance process, the facility restructured the system two weeks ago. Now, the new assistant superintendent, who began the job three weeks ago, will review every grievance. Each one will be entered into the inmate’s digital record, according to Touchette.
It’s “too early to see whether or not this will be an effective model in keeping the timeliness of responses where they need to be,” he said.
Touchette said the corrections department is working with the Legislature on strategies to reduce the state’s incarcerated population. Part of that effort should involve looking at interventions earlier in the criminal justice system, before individuals are incarcerated, he said.
He rebuffed calls to close the prison.
“Without putting the public at risk I think that would be something I’m not in support of,” Touchette said.
On Sunday, protestors plan to rally outside Chittenden Regional to demand that the facility release grievance records. They’re also calling for the prison to be closed.
Activists have also expressed concerns about safety of inmates following the arrest of a correctional officer employed at the facility for sexual assault. Christopher Rich allegedly sexually assaulted a woman who was formerly incarcerated at Chittenden Regional.
Elizabeth Hewitt contributed to this story.
