Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 01:23PM The House Human Services Committee voted 9-1 Friday to go along with much of Gov. Peter Shumlin's multifaceted plan for how to replace the state's flood-closed psychiatric hospital.
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 01:23PM Corrections officials told a Senate panel on Thursday that a proposed statewide Gang Task Force will help them contain a growing gang problem in Vermont prisons, where corrections officers have already identified members of the Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings and various white supremacy groups.
Monday, August 15, 2011 at 11:24AM Prison officials, backed by Vermont Corrections Commissioner Andrew Pallito, hope to make more outside recreation available to inmates serving time at a Massachusetts jail where some Vermont inmates rioted last month.
Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 04:26PM Vermont's congressional delegation is taking on President Obama over home heating assistance. The President's budget plan is expected to cut funding for the five billion dollar Low Income Home Energy Assistance program in half -- reversing the doubling in spending that the program received in 2008.
Link to full articleFriday, December 17, 2010 at 10:13AM Vermont will officially enter winter next week having received $14.4 million of the total $14.9 million in heating fuel assistance that the federal government has thus far earmarked for the entire season. And that $14.9 million total is considerably less than the $25.6 million the state received in federal heating fuel help last year.
Link to full articleFriday, December 3, 2010 at 09:47AM Vermont's commissioner of corrections says the state's prison population is declining. Commissioner Andrew Pallito says the state is now holding about 2,100 inmates. That figure is down from about 2,300 in October of last year. Pallito says the decrease is a result of the governor's "Challenges for Change" budget initiative, which directed the department to save $7 million.
Link to full articleMonday, June 14, 2010 at 02:17PM Andrew Pallito was named commissioner of the Vermont Corrections Department on the last day of 2008, a time when the department’s prison population was still expanding and the state’s financial picture was beginning to contract. Now, 18 months later, the collision between those two forces has Pallito and his 1,042-employee department up against a wall: In the coming year, he has to reduce his budget by $7 million to meet the cost-cutting mandates of the state’s Challenges for Change.
Link to full articleWednesday, June 2, 2010 at 12:31PM An investigation into the death of a woman in a Vermont prison reveals problems with communication and health care staffing. The Rutland Herald says a report released last week by the nonprofit group Disability Rights Vermont found the death of 23-year-old Ashley Ellis of Rutland could have been prevented if the Department of Corrections and the health care contractor Prison Health Services had done a better job.
Link to full articleWednesday, May 26, 2010 at 03:53PM As part of the "Challenges for Change" legislation that lawmakers passed this session, the state plans to release more non-violent offenders from prison to save money. But when those inmates leave prison before their maximum sentence is up, they're required to find stable housing. The Department of Corrections says that when it releases an inmate without housing plans in place, that person usually ends up back behind bars. But for an offender with the support of housing, the success rate is closer to 50 percent.
Link to full articleTuesday, May 4, 2010 at 03:08PM The Vermont Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the state's inmates serving time in a Kentucky prison who want to use debit cards for telephone calls and get free postage stamps just like inmates in Vermont prisons."It's a good precedent if we're going to be sending Vermont offenders out of state they should be logically and common-sensically treated the same as inmates who are serving time in state," said Vermont Defender General Matthew Valerio. As of Friday when the ruling was issued, 573 Vermont inmates were housed in Kentucky to ease overcrowding in Vermont's prisons.
Link to full articleTuesday, April 13, 2010 at 10:15AM Attorney General William Sorrell said he’s concerned that a spate of cases involving alleged criminal conduct by police officers might be undermining the trust Vermonters deserve to have in their police departments. “I recognize there may be a perception out there that there’s a problem, that somehow there are more rogue cops, or cops who are not trustworthy, for a state of our size,” Sorrell said. Sorrell said he does not share that perception, but if that’s what others believe, it’s a problem. “The public has got to believe in the integrity of those who enforce the law,” he said.
Link to full articleWednesday, April 7, 2010 at 10:11AM In Barre, where more than 300 former inmates live, the prospect of taking on more parolees and people on furlough is a sore subject. City officials say the presence of former offenders strains police services, drives up the crime rate and affects the quality of life. And they believe their community is among several in the state that have been unfairly burdened by the state’s placement of former inmates.
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Decades of frustration that date back to a decision to construct the county's criminal courthouse in the heart of their downtown boiled over in the Barre Opera House on Tuesday. More than 200 residents responded passionately to a legislative proposal they fear will solidify Barre's reputation as an "open-air prison," in the words of several speakers. Their reaction was both focused and emphatic: They want no part of a state cost-cutting plan that will result in the release of non-violent offenders, if it means those offenders will take up residence in Barre.
Link to full articleMonday, March 22, 2010 at 09:45AM The number of people Vermont locks up in prisons had been mostly in decline for about two years — until July 2008, when a 12-year-old girl died, allegedly at the hands of a convicted sex offender. Since the death of Brooke Bennett, the number of inmates — and the cost to house them — has risen steadily. The theory: In response to public outrage that the man charged with Brooke’s death had been freed from prison, judges have been sending offenders to prison more readily and for longer sentences. The solution: Legislation that passed the Senate on Wednesday seeks to counteract that boom in the prison population by keeping about 200 nonviolent offenders out of prison and letting others off probation six months early.
Link to full articleMonday, March 15, 2010 at 01:19PM Veterans organizations are looking to take a gamble as they seek a steady funding stream for the services they provide to retired servicemen across Vermont. Proposed legislation in the Vermont House would direct the Vermont Lottery to create special instant scratch-off tickets, with proceeds going into a new "Veterans Fund." The three new games called for in the bill could raise in the range of a half-million dollars annually.
Friday, March 12, 2010 at 02:14PM Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) will chair a field hearing of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday, March 22, in Barre, Vermont. The hearing will examine the effective efforts of Barre and surrounding communities in fighting drug-related crime. Leahy chairs the Senate panel, and noticed the hearing on “Effective Community Efforts to Counter Drug-Related Crime in Rural America” on Friday.
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