Sheriff’s deputies will no longer transport people who are released from the Springfield prison, according to the Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs.
“It’s a problem. It’s a big problem,” Matt Valerio, Vermont’s defender general, said of the decision.
Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield is a hub for pre-trial detainees, hosting remote arraignments for people charged with crimes in Windsor and Windham counties.
Now, if a person is released after their arraignment while awaiting trial, they will be let out of the relatively rural prison to fend for themselves, according to Valerio.
“They’re released at the bottom of the hill and told ‘good luck,’” Valerio said. “When you’re left at the bottom of a hill in zero degrees, you’re going to do what you need to do to survive.”
Due to a lack of capacity, sheriff’s transport deputies, who are paid by the state, have gradually stopped providing post-release rides, according to Tim Lueders-Dumont, executive director of the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs. Deputies are now ending the practice in the final counties where these transports were still occurring.
“We just don’t have the person power,” he said. “It was a good thing to be doing, but we have to put a stop to it now.”
There are 24 state-funded transport deputies, with one unfunded position recently added by the Legislature. Those deputies started providing rides for people released from prison during Covid-19, when courts began operating remotely, and arraignments took place in the prisons.
Now, as Vermont’s prison population reaches pre-pandemic levels and courts process a greater number of serious crimes like homicides, Lueders-Dumont said the state is prioritizing bringing detained people awaiting trial to court.
In the past, arraignments — the first hearings in a criminal case — took place in person, so a defendant released by a judge could walk free from the courthouse in their county of residence. But with remote hearings held at the Springfield prison, a person might be released to the streets 40 miles or more from home, with no way to call for or pay for a ride.
Remote arraignments have been a bane for attorneys and the Vermont Department of Corrections, who have argued that the system is often an inefficient use of resources and, at worst, a threat to the rights of people charged with crimes.
With post-release transports ending, the virtual hearings pose a new problem.
This past legislative session, the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs pushed unsuccessfully to significantly increase the number of state-funded transport deputies. If the department had 30, as requested, it could provide more services, according to Lueders-Dumont. But the department requires “belt-tightening,” he said, warning that the state’s next budget cycle will be even more challenging than the last.
Problems will arise as people leave prison without a plan, Lueders-Dumont acknowledged. He characterized that concern as beyond the scope of deputies’ duties. The department will consider providing rides in particularly high-risk situations, he said.
Valerio said he has a meeting Monday with the Department of Corrections and the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs, where he plans to bring up his concerns — but he doesn’t expect a quick fix.
“It’s solvable if we have the will to solve it,” Valerio said. “We might be looking for a legislative solution.”
