A system designed to help criminal offenders serve less time in prison has become a leading driver of the state’s prison admissions, according to new research from the Council of State Governments.
Though the furlough program lets inmates leave prison earlier than other options, its strict conditions mean that many people end up back behind bars, usually because of minor violations, researchers say.
Of the people who were sent to prison after they have been sentenced for crimes in a two year period, 78% were returning after they had been released because they violated the conditions of their furlough, parole or probation, researchers found.
Vermont’s furlough program, which is unique to the state, allows inmates to be released before they become eligible for probation or parole, and in some cases, before they reach their minimum sentences. While out on furlough, offenders are under strict supervision from the Department of Corrections.
The majority of Vermont offenders who are reincarcerated for violating conditions of their release are those on furlough, according to the research, which was presented to lawmakers and state officials on Monday. And within that population, the large majority are sent back to prison for technical violations like violating curfew or using alcohol.
Some lawmakers and criminal justice reform advocates say the research shows that the furlough system, which was expanded in the 2000s, is not functioning as intended because the strict conditions mean that even small violations send people back behind bars, rather than giving them opportunity to stay in the community.
Between July 2017 and July 2019, people were sent back to prison for violating their furlough conditions 1,425 times— making up 53% of prison admissions for sentenced offenders over the two-year period.
The research focused on individuals who were sentenced within the two year time period, not those who had been sentenced earlier or those who were being held pre-conviction. As of July 2019, there were 1,318 sentenced people in Vermont’s prisons, and 451 detainees, who had not yet been sentenced.
Ellen Whelan-Wuest, the deputy program director for the Council of State Governments’ Justice Center, said that Vermont’s furlough system is an “obvious place” for policymakers to consider reforms.
“Certainly the churn of people in and out and in and out seems unproductive,” she said, adding that repeated reincarceration does not typically lead to lower rates of recidivism.
The Council of State Governments presented its research on Monday as part of the “Justice Reinvestment” review it is participating in with the state.
Through the process, the organization works with state officials and policymakers to collect data, and make recommendations about how to reduce spending on corrections, curb the prison population, and reinvest taxpayer dollars in the criminal justice system to improve public safety.
It will make formal recommendations to the state early next year.
Vermont’s Defender General, Matt Valerio, said Monday that he wasn’t surprised to learn that furlough was responsible for a large portion of prison admissions.
Prior reviews of Vermont’s prison system — including the last time the Council of State Governments worked with the state in 2008 — found that offenders in community supervision programs are driving admissions.
He mentioned that low-level probation violations used to contribute to a large number of prison admissions and that the state worked to curb those after Vermont’s prison population hit a peak in the early 2000s.
“Every time we do this we look at and we see that the biggest feeder of the system are people who are trying to transition out of the system,” Valerio said.
“It’s concerning, it’s not unexpected, because there’s no real check on the furlough system,” he added.
Valerio said that unlike offenders on probation or parole, people on furlough don’t have due process protections: they can’t challenge DOC officials when they claim offenders have violated conditions of release.
He added that furlough is also stricter than the probation and parole systems, and that it is easier to violate conditions.
“They can’t bring you in for nothing, but those are not the kind of things that would get your probation violation, or even your parole violated,” he said.
The majority of the violations that landed the offenders out on furlough back in prison are not related to new crimes, or criminal behavior, the Council of State Governments’ research shows.
The Council of State Governments tracked furlough violations in 2019 and found that 77% of the people readmitted to prison committed technical violations. These can include losing housing, violating curfews, “program or work failures” and using drugs and alcohol.
Only 7% of furlough readmissions involved offenders exhibiting threatening or violent behavior, and 4% stemmed from sex offender condition violations, according to the report. And only 22% of readmissions came from offenders committing new crimes.
Most people who are readmitted to prison for furlough violations—83%— spend 90 days, or less in prison.
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that officials need to gain a better understanding of the technical violations that are sending people in the furlough system back to prison.
Sears said that after the last Justice Reinvestment process, the state cut the number of people returning to prison on probation violations in half, and reduced average length of probation sentences to 2-3 years. After looking closely at what was causing people on probation to return to prison, lawmakers found minor infractions were landing many people back in jail.
In the last two years, only 540 offenders have returned to prison on probation violations, according to the Council of State Governments.
“I think you have to do a similar thing there you have to examine the 1,500 people who are coming back in,” Sears said of the furlough system. “I don’t think you can make generalizations. You really have to get down into those numbers.”
Falko Schilling, the advocacy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, said Monday that the state should consider doing away with the furlough system, or finding a way to apply sanctions for furlough violations in a “more uniform” fashion.
“I think looking at eliminating furlough from our system is something that we should be talking about,” he said, “especially when we see how it’s driving the numbers in our incarcerated population.”
