Corrections plays game with inmates (Vermont)

[Gaoler]

Published: Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Ed Shamy
Free Press Staff Writer

Host: Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another round of "Move That Inmate!" Vermont's most popular game show is, as always, brought to you by the Vermont Agency of Human Services through its Department of Corrections.

Back with us today is John Q. Public, an ordinary Vermont taxpayer who continues on his quest to correctly answer all the jail questions we can throw at him and qualify for our Free Bail Bonds for Life drawing. John, are you ready to play today?

John Q: You bet.

Host: OK, John, for your first question today, how much does every man, woman and child in Vermont pay each year to incarcerate our 2,200 or so inmates?

John Q: Would that be $150?

Host: Yes! And how much did they spend, in what year, to create the Dale Correctional Facility in Waterbury to house women only?

John Q.: I'm going to say they spent $2.8 million in 2000 to convert state offices into a women's prison.

(Cue audience: Collective, "wow!")

Host: Yes, again, John Q! You are on quite the roll today! And how is it working at Dale these days?

John Q: Pricey. There were 46 women at Dale on Monday. We're spending more than $72,000 per year per female inmate. Significant bit of scratch there, and by far our most expensive prison, per capita.

Host: Oh, dear! That's quite the bottomless pit of cash! So what now?

John Q: The Legislature is thinking now of closing the Dale prison and moving women to the Northwest Correctional Facility in St. Albans Town.

Host: Wow! What would happen to the 228 men now housed there?

John Q: One idea would be to disperse them to other prisons; some would be free to live outside of prison walls under Corrections supervision. Some might even go out of state. We Vermonters pay to house 520 or so inmates at private prisons outside the state.

Host: Where, John?

John Q: Used to be in New Jersey and in Virginia. Nowadays it's in Kentucky. Sometimes Tennessee. Sometimes Oklahoma.

Host: And why?

John Q: Well, it costs $21,199 per inmate per year to house them there. If they stay in Vermont, in our tax-funded prisons, it costs an average of $45,702.

Host: How does that math work?

John Q: Well, if I knew that, I'd be the governor, wouldn't I? Or maybe not!

(Cue audience laughter.)

Host: Very good, John. Did Vermont taxpayers get much of a bang for the buck from their Dale spending?

John Q: Alcatraz lasted 29 years. You do the math. Why, if a normal citizen had remodeled his kitchen in 2000, there's no way under real-life circumstances they'd be thinking of doing it again, or moving the kitchen altogether. But this isn't real life. This is government.

Host: Excellent answer, John. So now you've reached the bonus round. Answer this correctly and you qualify for a chance at free bail bonds for life. How much would it cost to convert the jail in St. Albans to an all-women's facility.

John Q: Wow, tough to say. I'll go with a boatload.

Host: WE HAVE A WINNER!
Ed Shamy's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 660-1862 or eshamy@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com