As Covid-19 cases continue to crop up in Vermont’s prisons, officials worry the steps they’re taking to protect inmates from the virus could be harming their mental health.
“There are so many negative things that come out of what we’re doing, because you have to set the priority of keeping the facility safe,” interim Corrections Commissioner Jim Baker told lawmakers Thursday.
Baker told the House Committee on Corrections and Institutions he is particularly concerned about the isolation inmates have faced over the past year. They must quarantine for 14 days when they are first go to prison and again if they test positive for the virus.
Inmates in quarantine are often kept in cells used for solitary confinement to avoid spreading Covid-19 throughout the building, according to the Department of Corrections.
Baker told lawmakers the state’s prison system has faced “a couple of incidents” of self-harm among those in quarantine, and “I’ve asked the team to take a look at making sure we’re doing the absolute level best we can on best practices around mental well-being as we bring people into our system and quarantine them.”
One person has died by suicide while quarantining in Vermont’s prison system during the pandemic. Michael Dupont, 36, an inmate at Northeast Correctional Complex in St. Johnsbury was found dead last December — three days after he arrived at the prison and while he was being held in isolation.
There has been one other documented suicide attempt. Last July, Wayne LePage, 39, attempted to end his life while quarantined in a segregated cell at Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport.
Since the pandemic began in March, 50 Department of Corrections employees and 247 inmates have tested positive for the virus. The vast majority of those cases stemmed from an outbreak last summer at a private prison in Mississippi, where nearly 200 Vermont inmates are held — and 185 had Covid.
Last week, three inmates at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility tested positive for Covid-19. The South Burlington women’s prison has been locked down since six cases among staff members were detected during routine testing on Jan. 21. Inmates at the facility were tested on Jan. 26, and those who tested positive have been isolated in solitary cells.
As of Friday, there were at least 11 active cases among Department of Corrections employees at four different prisons and offices, according to the department’s website.
In his testimony last week, Baker said Vermont is the only state in which no inmates have died from Covid-19.
Though those in quarantine are often held in cells typically used for solitary confinement, the experience is not the same, said department spokesperson Rachel Feldman. Unlike those in solitary, she said, imates in quarantine have access to electronic tablets, books, puzzles and normal meals. They can still place calls to family members, she said, though some solitary units have limited access to the internet.
“We do understand and are working actively to address the mental health trials that come with [quarantine], but for the safety of the entire population, and to prevent an outbreak, it is necessary to isolate positive individuals, and upon intake, it is necessary to put people into intake quarantine, which is single-cell,” Feldman said.
Defender General Matt Valerio, who oversees the Prisoners’ Rights Office, said the current protocol for quarantining inmates “probably has to be, to some degree, the way it is now.”
But he said he and Baker have talked about expanding mental health services for inmates being kept in solitary cells.
In normal times, Valerio said, inmates can’t be held in segregated cells for more than 48 hours without a hearing. “But now we’re in Covid situation and they’ve got two weeks in isolation right from the get-go,” he said. “And remember, these are people who are not convicted of anything yet, and may never be,” ” he said, referring to the policy of quarantining new inmates who enter the prison system.
Valerio hopes the department will begin providing regular check-ins with mental health professionals once or twice per day for quarantined inmates. He said mental health services are available to inmates now, but typically by request or when a corrections officer notices a “potential problem.”
He said the Prisoners’ Rights Office has seen an uptick in communications about inmates committing acts of self-harm, or facing distress in isolation.
Some criminal justice reform advocates say the Department of Corrections should take more action to help limit isolation in the prison system.
Ashley Messier, executive director of the Women’s Justice and Freedom Initiative, argues that the state should continue to reduce its prison population, which would limit the need to use solitary cells.
Vermont has already significantly lowered the number of inmates in state custody. On March 13, 2020, the total population was 1,642 inmates. It’s currently just under 1,100 — as prosecutors send fewer people to prison and the department releases more people in its custody.
But Messier said the department could do more to release those who are elderly or who have served their minimum sentences — and to prevent those on probation or parole from returning to prison due to minor violations of their terms of release.
“We’ve got people who are immunocompromised. We have a whole bunch of people that are there for lack of bail, lack of housing, past their [minimum], technical violation, so I mean we could be moving more people out into the community,” Messier said. “And that would mitigate having to house people in segregation units.”
Messier also thinks inmates should be high priority for the Covid-19 vaccine.
“It’s the same theory that’s behind why we vaccinate nursing homes,” she said. “It’s a captive population who is at high risk for deaths as a result of Covid-19, or serious complications.”
The state expects to begin vaccinating inmates this week, starting with those who are 75 and older. “People who are incarcerated will be vaccinated as they meet the same age — and later, chronic condition — criteria as all Vermonters,” said Ben Truman, a spokesperson for the Vermont Department of Health.
Falko Schilling, advocacy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, said there’s “more work that can be done” to reduce the state’s prison population.
He said the department should improve inmates’ access to therapeutic and religious services through electronic means, and give them more opportunities to virtually connect with friends and family during the pandemic.
“We know that this puts an incredible amount of mental strain on people, especially when they’re put in lockdowns repeatedly for extended periods of time, so we need to be taking extra care to provide those services necessary for people inside the facilities,” Schilling said.
