An agreement with federal authorities requires the state Department of Corrections to provide better care of incarcerated people with disabilities, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Vermont.
The deal includes a provision for the corrections department to pay $80,000 to compensate current and past incarcerated individuals who were harmed.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Vermont’s civil rights division announced the settlement agreement late Thursday afternoon.
“The parties agree that it is in their best interests, and the United States believes that it is in the public interest, to resolve this matter without engaging in protracted litigation,” the agreement stated.
“The parties have therefore voluntarily entered into this Agreement,” the document stated. “This Agreement should not be construed as an admission of liability by VDOC.”
The 25-page agreement, dated Thursday, is signed by James Baker, the interim commissioner of corrections, and Jonathan Ophardt, acting U.S. Attorney for Vermont.
Ophardt could not immediately be reached for comment.
“The corrections department,” Ophardt said in the written announcement of the agreement Thursday, has “committed to removing barriers” for incarcerated individuals with disabilities.
Baker, in a statement Thursday evening, said the department “acknowledges the shortcomings” that existed and began making improvements even prior to negotiations.
“DOC was a willing partner in this, has always been at the table, and has already implemented a number of the items outlined — many of which were in place before today’s agreement finalization,” Baker said.
The settlement, according to that announcement, stems from an investigation by federal authorities into complaints from incarcerated people that the corrections department failed to meet requirements for them under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
According to the agreement document the complaints included:
— Incarcerated people at South State Correctional Facility in Springfield alleging the corrections department did not provide accessible facilities for people with mobility disabilities.
— Incarcerated people at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington, the state’s only women’s prison, stating that the corrections department is not providing effective communication for people with hearing disabilities, denying them participation in educational, vocational, religious and other programs.
The investigation concluded the Springfield and South Burlington prisons as well as the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport “fail to provide architectural, communication, and program access to persons with disabilities.”
As a result, the agreement document stated, incarcerated individuals with disabilities were “excluded from participation in or denied the benefits” of corrections department programs, services and activities.
According to the statement issued Thursday by federal authorities, the agreement ensures the rights of incarcerated people with disabilities equal access to medical and prison facilities, including cells, as well as prison programs and services.
For incarcerated individuals with hearing disabilities, the agreement requires the corrections department to ensure they have access to hearing aids and services, from sign language interpreters to video telephones.
The agreement calls for an $80,000 payment from the corrections department to compensate five “aggrieved persons” identified during the federal investigation. The agreement does not outline how much each person would receive.
Within 30 days, according to the agreement, federal authorities will send a copy of the agreement to each of those five people “along with a Release of Claims Form.”
Then, within 30 days of the corrections department receiving the release of claims form, the department will send that person a check “in an amount agreed to as directed by the United States.”
If one of the “aggrieved” people does not sign and return the Release of Claims form within 45 days from when it is sent, that person will “forfeit and waive” their entitlement to the payment under the agreement.
The agreement added that “VDOC may retain the money designated for that aggrieved person, decreasing the total amount VDOC is required to pay.”
