Profound thanks are due VTDigger for the harsh but needed light its recent reporting shines on Vermont’s “correctional” system.
We would have expected our small, progressive state to prioritize keeping low-level offenders out of prison and rehabilitating those who are incarcerated. Instead, we have learned of the shockingly high death rate among prisoners, the unconscionable neglect of their health care needs, their exploitation by licensed purveyors of every necessity and the arbitrary, capricious, often malicious procedures that govern all aspects of their lives.
An Aug. 21 story headlined “Absolutely ludicrous” describes how an inmate, Matthew Morgan, on furlough in the community while serving a sentence, has been reincarcerated for four years after being accused of shoplifting from Walmart. The “evidence” was that he and the unidentified thief caught on a security camera were both Black men, wearing black jeans and white shoes.
Although the false charges were immediately dropped when Morgan’s doctor furnished an alibi, Morgan has been back in prison since October. A group of Department of Corrections employees decided to reincarcerate Morgan during an unrecorded, closed-door meeting at which no notes were taken and Morgan was not allowed to be present. The apparent justification is that Morgan was accused of a crime, even though the accusation was baseless and quickly dropped.
With the Vermont Prisoners Rights Office supporting Morgan, it seems likely that the four-year sentence will eventually be rescinded, but meanwhile he can only wait, who knows for how long.
Beyond the personal injustice to Mr. Morgan is the concern that there is almost no check on similar outrages of varying degrees of seriousness by the corrections department — all at public expense. We expect this kind of institutionalized cruelty in totalitarian societies or deep red American states, not in Vermont.
Most of us would know nothing about it, if not for VTDigger. Now we need to ask what we can do about it.
Judy Olinick
Middlebury
