The commissioner of the state Department of Corrections has denied a public records appeal from VTDigger seeking the name of the lone bidder on a state contract to house incarcerated Vermonters out of state.
Nicholas Deml cited the same reasoning for denying the request that the department provided earlier this month when rejecting a public records request for the identity of the bidder.
Deml, in his one-page denial letter, pointed to an exemption in the Vermont Public Records Act for “records relating specifically to negotiation of contracts.”
VTDigger has contended that while the negotiations may be exempt, the identity of the bidder is not.
Deml, in his denial letter, wrote that he doesn’t see it that way.
“The Department considers the identity of the bidder information that relates specifically to the negotiation of a contract and therefore exempt from public disclosure until such time as a contract is fully executed or the Department does not select a bidder and decides not to return to the RFP process,” the letter from the commissioner stated.
“Withholding this information at this time is meant to ensure that negotiations may proceed without external influence,” he added.
The corrections department sought bids earlier this year for housing incarcerated individuals for whom Vermont prisons have no room.
CoreCivic, a giant in the private prison industry, has held the contract since October 2018, with an initial two-year deal that was extended to this October.
About 125 Vermonters are being held in CoreCIvic’s Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in northwest Mississippi.
CoreCivic has declined to say if it is the bidder for the new contract, stating only, “Out of respect to our government partner, it’s our policy to not comment on any active procurement processes.”
The Vermont Department of Corrections is short on capacity, and has been sending a portion of those it incarcerates out of state since 1998. Years ago, that number totaled more than 700 but has since dropped to around 125.
More than a dozen prison operators, from governments to private entities, have held the contract over the years from as far away as Arizona and as close as Massachusetts.
Bidding for the most recent contract closed in March, with prison officials hoping to make the award sometime in July. At that time, prison officials said, they would release the identity of the sole bidder.