Representatives took a field trip to a state prison in St. Albans on Wednesday — and I wasn’t invited!
I was excited Monday afternoon when I saw the House Corrections and Institutions Committee had a “Field Trip” scheduled for today, per its agenda for the week. The description offered: “Visit to Northwest State Correctional Facility.”
The prison in St. Albans is one of six in the state, and it’s where most men in the custody of federal immigration authorities in Vermont are held.
I wanted to write about legislators seeing, and reacting to, the prison — especially as they’re considering a bill that directs how taxpayer dollars will be spent on state-owned buildings.
I messaged Haley Sommer, a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections, and said I wanted the department and lawmakers to allow me to attend. She replied: “We are currently only facilitating the tour for the committee.” The group was already too big for the prison’s size, she said.
But, the tour was a gathering of representatives doing legislative work. And I thought because the majority of committee members would be present, the public should be able to attend. The department has facilitated multiple visits for VTDigger in the past.
Without eyes on the tour, the public is left in the dark on what informs the decisions of lawmakers, who write laws that govern the Corrections Department and its funding.
Later that day, I got word from the department that there would not be a quorum of legislators. One representative in the 11-person committee would stay home, and during the visit the group would split in half. The department said it tries to only bring in small groups, and it could jeopardize security and the privacy of incarcerated people to allow media.
Reporters might be able to tour the facility another time without legislators, Sommer said. Or — if the committee’s chair allowed it — I could potentially tour a different state prison with lawmakers soon, she said.
I asked House Corrections chair, Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield, what she thought. She said the department has the ability to decide who comes into the prison, and the department always tries to limit the number of visitors.
When I asked Emmons if reporters were able to join for past visits, she said she didn’t remember.
Wanting to do my journalistic due diligence, I showed up at the prison Wednesday morning. After waiting with representatives in the prison’s lobby, I was told the department would not let me in with the committee. Then lawmakers were ushered in, walking past the metal detector in what looked like one big group.
Rep. Troy Headrick, I-Burlington, said ahead of the visit that he didn’t think it was nefarious or intentional that the committee planned to split into groups. Headrick did say, though, that he thought the press should be let in.
“I think we should be fully transparent,” he said.
Conor Kennedy, the House speaker’s chief of staff, said Wednesday that his office tries their best to make legislative field trips accessible to the public and the press. The office always advises legislators that if the press can’t attend a trip that involves legislative work, the committee should make sure it’s following the law and avoiding a quorum, Kennedy said.
“We make every effort to accommodate media visits when requested and appropriate,” Sommer said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. The department was unable to accommodate requests from multiple media outlets in this instance, she said.
The Department plans to continue facilitating visits for VTDigger reporters, Sommer said.
— Charlotte Oliver
In the know
Technology feels pretty ubiquitous nowadays, particularly in education, where kids spend an increasing amount of time on Chromebooks and other tech products throughout their school days.
Legislation in the House, however, would set stronger limits on educational technology. H.830, sponsored by Rep. Angela Arsenault, D-Williston, would give parents or guardians of students in Vermont’s schools the right to opt out of using electronic devices as part of their education.
This may sound Luddite. But there’s more and more evidence that the abundance of technology in schools is actually diminishing students’ cognitive skills.
Vermont students’ reading test scores have declined significantly since 2016, according to the text of the bill. That same year, the Vermont Agency of Education reported a dramatic increase in one-to-one devices for students.
Also that year, the 85,000 computers in Vermont schools outnumbered the total number of students in the system, according to the bill.
“I think that just speaks to the utter saturation in our schools of classroom technology, and the way that it was adopted with a great deal of understandable optimism,” Arsenault told lawmakers on the House Education Committee on Wednesday. “But we have to take a look at what’s actually happening now and really critically review whether that optimism was warranted.”
The bill itself has no clear path to law at the moment. But the House Education Committee chair, Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall, said he thought it was “at a minimum, worthy of a good conversation” and said there’s “always the potential” of tacking this one to a miscellaneous education bill.
— Corey McDonald
Rep. Monique Priestley, D-Bradford, spoke to the Senate Economic Development Committee Wednesday morning about how lawmakers can better protect Vermonters’ personal information online.
Her bill, H.211, specifically targets “data brokers,” which Priestley defined as entities that sell consumers’ data — from addresses to fingerprint records — without having a direct relationship with affected customers. There are plenty of legitimate venues for this practice, Priestley noted, such as identity verification systems. But scams, fraud and stalking are sometimes made possible by such data sales too, she said, if the information falls into the wrong hands.
Vermont passed a law in 2018 creating a data broker registry — the first state to do so — where such groups must provide information about their activities. H.211 expands and raises penalties for companies who don’t follow regulations but focuses primarily on the rights of individual consumers to control their data.
In particular, the bill seeks to make it easier for Vermonters to have their information deleted from online databases. With some exceptions, data brokers would be required to include a “conspicuous” page on their website where individuals can make such requests. Companies would have a month to comply. The bill would also authorize a study looking into a possible state-run “deletion portal,” such as the one created by California, to handle those requests in one place.
Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden Southeast, expressed support for the bill’s intent but underlined Vermont’s inherent disadvantage compared with states like California that enjoy economies of scale. Previous estimates for a centralized portal had come to $8 million, she said, which is “never going to happen.”
Ideally, lawmakers agreed, states would work together to protect the digital information of their citizens.
“This is a common problem,” said committee chair Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor, “and one that we could solve together.”
— Theo Wells-Spackman
On the trail
Topsham resident Aiden Otterman, who’s served on the Vermont State Youth Council, is running for the House in the Caledonia-Orange district as a Democrat. The seat is held by Newbury Rep. Joe Parsons, who is listed on the Legislature’s website as an independent and has previously run as a Republican.
Newbury resident and independent Susan Culp has also announced she’s running.
— Ethan Weinstein
Clarification: This newsletter previously implied that the Legislature is subject to Vermont’s Open Meeting Law. While the Legislature is not subject to Vermont’s Open Meeting Law, the legislative branch is subject to its own public access rules and the Vermont Constitution’s transparency requirements.
