The Vermont Department of Corrections plans to end its Covid-19 intake quarantine measures on Monday in all state facilities, the department announced in a Thursday press release.
The quarantine measures had meant incarcerated people started their sentences with two weeks of isolation, which critics compared to punitive solitary confinement.
In the release, department officials said Vermont is the only state to report zero Covid-19-related deaths among incarcerated individuals or staff.
But Vermont prisons have reported two incarcerated people’s deaths by suicide during intake quarantines. Dustin Dunkling, 29, died earlier this month and Michael Dupont, 36, was found dead in December 2020.
Other reports of self-harm, including at least one attempted suicide, during the required isolation date back to the beginning of the pandemic.
“I will say that the two-week period of isolation and quarantine, while clearly serving a purpose for Covid, is becoming an identifiable issue, as we expected it might be for some harm incidents,” Vermont Defender General Matthew Valerio said earlier this month.
Prior to the pandemic, isolation was typically used for punishment for someone who had done something wrong during their incarceration, Valerio said.
Incarcerated people in quarantine are often kept in cells used for solitary confinement, the Department of Corrections said last year.
Corrections Commissioner Jim Baker told lawmakers in January 2021 that the state’s prison system had faced “a couple of incidents” of self-harm among those in quarantine.
The Department of Corrections said intake quarantine “served as one of the Department’s strongest mitigation tools in preventing the spread of the COVID-19 virus to general population housing units.”
Commissioner Nicholas Deml acknowledged in the Thursday press release that the department’s attempts to protect their charges’ physical health often “came at a cost to the mental and emotional well-being of our staff and our incarcerated population.”
The department will continue to use the isolation measure for individuals who test positive for Covid-19 “based on recommendations from the Vermont Department of Health,” officials said in the release.
The department also announced the reopening of in-person visitation at all six correctional facilities. With the allowance of in-person visitation, many support services and other programming can begin again.
“While we know the virus entered our facilities from the outside, we also know that many positive things come from the outside: family, friends, programming, education, and support services,” the department said in the release. “We are relieved to finally ease the burden on our staff and increase the resources and sources of health and wellness for those in our care.”