Since the tragic death of David Mitchell in April, we have been gathering accounts from incarceration-impacted people around Vermont. The resulting stories, from currently and formerly incarcerated people and their friends and family, tells the real story of how people’s physical and mental health is being mistreated if not ignored in our prisons. Below are a dozen examples. (more…)
When asked why the death rate in Vermont prisons has gone up so drastically, Corrections Commissioner Nick Deml replied that the prison population is getting older and sicker. It might have come as a surprise to some that we have so many old and / or sick people in our prisons. Some people might think that the people that we lock away are there because they’re scarey and dangerous. That they are there for our protection. In fact, they are there because we as a society insist upon punishment. They remain behind bars until they are old and frail because we feel they haven’t been punished enough. And so we have a geriatric, or long term care unit, where people are in wheelchairs and with walkers, some in various stages of dementia, are waiting to die. And we have people who die in prison. (more…)
In December 2019, a man named Kenneth Johnson in the infirmary at the Northern State Correctional Facility was gasping for breath and begging staff to bring him to a hospital. Another man in the infirmary with him reported that he banged on the window for help, but was told by a corrections officer to knock it off or he’d take him to the hole — solitary confinement. Mr Johnson died before the sun rose the next morning. (more…)
Your spouse, or loved one, or sibling, or child, has an encounter with the law. It can happen, doesn’t matter why. What then begins is a journey through our criminal justice system. The experience for the folks on the outside can be frightening, and is always hard, and frustrating, constantly disappointing, and is heartbreakingly real. The reality so stunning in the not-what-you-expected, or thought-you-knew or understood about the system — only to be horrified by the actual facts. From the moment of arraignment to the first days of incarceration to trying to navigate their draconian rules just to be a parent or loved one and to attempt to protect your loved one from the pitfalls of the system — and to try to work with the system — only to be slapped in the face with the reality that the system is broken. And they want it that way. (more…)
Did you miss our rally at the State House on May 4? Here’s the coverage and some photos.
to let our legislators know that too many preventable deaths are happening in our prisons under their watch. For-profit health care is failing incarcerated persons — and our community.
Last Monday morning, David Mitchell, a 46-year-old man from Rutland, complained to prison guards that he couldn’t breathe and needed urgent medical treatment. According to multiple accounts from other people incarcerated in the same block, the guard told Mitchell to stop complaining and go back to his cell. When Mitchell kept begging to be taken to the hospital, he was threatened with being sent “to the hole” – solitary confinement – if he didn’t stop. Within an hour, he died in his cell. (more…)
A Vermont Just Justice member wrote this letter to the Vermont Senate Judiciary committee in support of S.119,
Dear Senators,
Our organization, Vermont Just Justice, is writing to you in regard to the recent bill sent to your committee. This bill is intended to decriminalize the personal use of drugs that are currently classified as a criminal offense. The legislative wording states a clear understanding of:
• drug misuse as a public health crisis with fatal overdoses significantly rising
• criminal justice response ineffective and expensive
• criminal legal response detrimental to individuals, families, people of color, or those living in poverty
• criminal legal ramifications continue to keep people with addictions in poverty, and adversely affects their children, and families by inhibiting housing, education, benefits and income
• increases needless incarceration
• addiction is a disease classified in medicine as a chronic brain disorder that responds to treatment versus punishment (more…)
Today will forever be known to me as your “gotcha day.” It’s the day the system got you and changed the course of our family forever. No more family trips or late night runs to McDonald’s. Instead, as your mom, I learned fast how to negotiate the systems that would allow me to talk with you, write to you, see you, speak to you, send you money and negotiate for your future. (more…)
The guard dragged Frank feet-first,
as if he were
one more Saturday night special,
just another drunk destined for the tank.
Fifteen minutes of chest compressions
got the COs winded by turns
and the old man no further from death. (more…)
