Corrections plays game with inmates

[Gaoler]

Corrections plays game with inmates

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

[Gaoler]

Here are the comments on it from the newspapers website:

Author Message
article_user
Site Admin
Joined: 31 Dec 1969
Posts: 1


New postPosted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:57 am Post subject: -
Reader comments and feedback for the article.
Back to top
View user's profile - -
GreenMountainPatriot

Joined: 02 May 2007
Posts: 2465
Location: Vermont

New postPosted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:59 am Post subject: -
Privatize the prisons.
Get rid of the frills.
Run them like a business.
Bring back work crews.

Four common sense approaches the Vermont .gov will never take to save money.
_________________
"Liberalism, with its ever changing totem pole of hierarchy of its causes, is like a continuous game of Jenga, except that no matter who causes it to fall, it will be the Republican’s fault." - Rourke
Back to top
View user's profile - -
The wise one

Joined: 13 Dec 2007
Posts: 97


New postPosted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:14 am Post subject: -
I'm glad to see that such a serious topic is treated with such a dignified article.
Back to top
View user's profile - -
jbtrevor

Joined: 29 Mar 2007
Posts: 2319


New postPosted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:15 am Post subject: -
The women's facility at Dale was the brainchild of Howard Dean, thanks Howie
JB T
Back to top
View user's profile - -
jinxz211

Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 1
Location: franklin county

New postPosted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:53 am Post subject: -
I lived in Houston for a few years and drove past the Texas TDC on a regular bases. There was a railway on one side a small private airport on another and a major highway in front. Evertime I went by, there was a work crew either tending to their corn field, picking up trash along the highway or cutting the weeds around the guardrails with a hoe. With two guards on horseback and armed with shot guns and three dogs in case anyone wanted to "leave" I never heard of anyone ever getting away or trying to. I say bring in some work camps and put these people to WORK. This also worked on the kids who thought they were tough and wanted to steal cars and deface private property. Is this cuel and inhumane? I don't think so, what I do think is what they did to the public, community and person(s) effected by their crime is !
Back to top
View user's profile - -
mindcat

Joined: 09 Nov 2007
Posts: 2077
Location: Resident Vermont- South

New postPosted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:32 am Post subject: -
Why not bring some of the better gene pool men to Waterbury. Its been shown when women have a man and a man a woman, things go better.

Its almost as good as drinking a coke.
_________________
Donald's a duck, Mickey's a Mouse and Goofy is a dog,
What is George Bush, Jr?
Back to top
View user's profile - -
The wise one

Joined: 13 Dec 2007
Posts: 97


New postPosted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:36 am Post subject: -
A good first step would be to legalize marijuana. No punishment for use, posession, sale, or distribution. That would free up some space and be a more sane approach to boot.
Back to top
View user's profile - -
mikeaoc

Joined: 22 Jan 2008
Posts: 116
Location: Jericho

New postPosted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:10 am Post subject: -
a wise one... maybe we could legalize prostitution, rape, incest, child porn, driving drunk or high and only send real criminals to prison. The problem with VT corrections is that has the mindset of being repairitive justice not punitive. in other words we will bring you into prison and make you all better with classes and get your ged and maybe even some college - The VT constitution says that criminals are to do hard labor - but that might offend them and hurt their self esteem.... If it cost less then half to send them to a for profit prison somewhere else then send them all somewhere else - maybe when they get out they will stay there.
Patriot - you are right on! can you believe that the state actually pays prisioners for work that they do in prison?
Back to top
View user's profile - -
BigDeal

Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 17


New postPosted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:08 am Post subject: -
That was a great game, but you forgot to mention the many losers in this game as well.
The prisoners and their families, and the St Albans community. Next time can we play "The Price Isn't Right" ?
Back to top
View user's profile - -
warrenvter

Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 11


New postPosted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:35 am Post subject: -
The main problem with the whole issue is that in our "politically correct" modern world we've completely forgotten the purpose of punishment for crimes. There is a significant, and powerful, subset of our population that fells the purpose of the system is to somehow change the criminals behavior. That should be only a secondary consideration. The primary purpose of punishment for a crime is to set and reinforce societal standards. Punishment's primary purpose is DETERRENCE. It's supposed to be hard and it's supposed to be humiliating. Any form of punishment, if sufficient, should make all the other members of society who observe it say "I'm never going to commit that act because I don't want to endure that punishment."

Now that prisons are cushy (comparatively) a lot of the stigma attached to criminal behavior has been lost. We worry too much about the "rights" of the criminal than we do about the rights of a society to free itself of criminal behavior.
Back to top
View user's profile - -