The Vermont women’s prison in South Burlington had 16 incarcerated individuals and five staff members test positive within the past month, leading the Vermont Department of Corrections to reimplement Covid restrictions — but not to put it into lockdown, in contrast with previous policy.
The Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, which houses about 50 sentenced individuals and 30 pretrial detainees at any one time, first detected new Covid cases on April 15, according to corrections department spokesperson Rachel Feldman.
In response, the department stopped in-person visitation and modified programs for people housed in the facility.
But Vermont did not put the facility into lockdown, a change from state policy since March 2020 of confining people to their cells when cases arose. The department has come under criticism for the effect of lockdowns on incarcerated individuals’ mental health.
Two weeks ago, the department announced it would end its two-week quarantine for new arrivals and open prisons to visitors. Feldman said facilities were on a “four-phase plan” that slowly decreased restrictions at each facility.
Prisons have to be “flexible” because of their close-contact environment, which limits social distancing options, she said. “As soon as the facility is able to go up in levels in terms of reopening, we want to move them there,” she said. “We are looking to get back to normal as quickly as possible, but as safely as possible.”
When people tested positive in the Chittenden prison, the facility moved back a step but didn’t entirely close, she said. Officials have dedicated the third housing unit of the prison as a Covid isolation unit and plan to test incarcerated individuals for the next three days to determine next steps.
Defending the state’s track record on Covid restrictions, Feldman said, “We know that that has come with a price,” but added that Vermont has not reported any Covid deaths among incarcerated individuals or staff.
“There is no cost that you can put on a human life,” she said.
— Erin Petenko