It’s not unusual for Vermont’s Department of Corrections to be at the center of debate. The department manages six prisons across Vermont, with more than 1,000 incarcerated people in the system.
The department is perpetually facing challenges, which only increased during the pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic. There are perennial discussions over the ethics of sending people to out-of-state prisons, the conditions that incarcerated people face and what working conditions are like for the department’s employees.
Since January 2022, 16 incarcerated people have died — 12 at one prison, the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield. That has focused even more attention on the Department of Corrections as well as the health care and conditions in Vermont’s prisons.
In this episode, host Sam Gale Rosen talks about some of these issues with reporter Ethan Weinstein. He covers southeastern Vermont for VTDigger, and much of his recent journalism has focused on the Department of Corrections.
Outrage and grief as Vermonters rally for George Floyd
How Fletcher escaped the 1918 flu
The hunger problem ahead
Inequality during the downturn
Why we tattle
One inmate's story of Covid-19 behind bars
Containing the coronavirus as reopening begins
How Vermont hospitals are preparing for a Covid-19 peak
Decoding Vermont's COVID-19 projections
Vermont's spike in unemployment claims, explained
Sen. Leahy on the coronavirus stimulus controversy
Preparing — not panicking — before the outbreak expands
Burlington Progressives take power — and plan their next steps
Competing climate bills in the Statehouse
Vermont's deadliest decade for killings by police
Sanders' skeptics and supporters in New Hampshire
When Bernie Sanders learned to lead
What's next for Woodside
Is paid leave in peril?
A Statehouse agenda, disrupted on day one
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