About 700 Vermont inmates head to Kentucky, other states

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By Associated Press

Published: 02/23/2004

Hundreds of Vermont prisoners will make their way to Kentucky and other states this month, the first time the state's inmates will be held in private prisons.
Steve Gold, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Corrections, signed a deal with Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America last month that will send around 700 inmates to prisons in Kentucky, Tennessee and Arizona.
Like institutions in other states, Vermont's prisons are overcrowded.
Corrections officials said the 29-month agreement with CCA will save the state hundreds of thousands of dollars and provide inmates with better conditions than they experience in Vermont.
Vermont has been exporting its inmates to prisons in other states since 1998.
The contract with CCA - the nation's largest private prison operator - replaces an existing deal with the state of Virginia to hold inmates from Vermont there.
CCA has been vying for Vermont's out-of-state inmate business for two years. The company's deal with Vermont trumped bids by two other companies, Massachusetts-based CiviGenics Inc. and Louisiana's Emerald Correctional Management.
Almost 400 Vermont offenders in Virginia will move to CCA prisons by the end of February, said Ray Flum, director of classification for the Corrections Department. Another 20 inmates will move monthly from Vermont prisons until overcrowding eases.
Some families of Vermont inmates have expressed concerns about exportation, arguing that they cannot visit prisoners being held out of state because the distances are too far.
In choosing CCA, Gold said he was "particularly sensitive" to these concerns.
The company must report monthly on each inmate's program attendance, education participation and employment status.

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