State Ignores Inhumane Conditions of the Vermont Women’s Prison for More than 20 Years

Below is a post I found that goes hand and hand with my Breaking the Silence series about the inhumane conditions of the Vermont women’s prison. How bad is it that the State of Vermont has been aware of the inhumane conditions in that facility for more than twenty years, and they have done NOTHING to rectify it?

In Slice 1 of the series, I mention the sewage that backed up into the cells made it impossible for us to walk on the floor, and we were locked in these cells twenty-three hours a day. My entire unit wrote to Prisoner’s Rights, and nine months later, they allowed us not to be locked in the cells and to have access to the backed-up dayroom. That occurred around 2002 or 2004, and there are more records of this stuff than I can count.

They are entirely aware of these issues, but these women are still there almost twenty years later. They should have built another facility a long time ago, but instead, they spend our money on parks and recreation when human beings are suffering, and the world shrugs it off because of the stereotyping in regard to the populace. “Oh, they exaggerate the circumstances.”

I am here to tell you that there is no exaggerating the conditions of that nasty facility. The author says since 2011? Try 1995, at least. They moved us women out of CRCF in 2000, I think around there anyway, and our return in 2011 was just that: a return. They moved us to the Windsor facility, and I am not even kidding; our shampoo and hygiene items would be frozen if we left them on our dressers in front of the windows.

The windows wouldn’t close all the way. We had to sleep with our oversized winter jackets on, and they actually allowed us to double up on the bunks because even the COs knew we might not survive it. They left us in that facility for what… Four years, maybe more, maybe less. Winters in Windsor, VT, are no joke, man. I am 7.5 years sober, and I grew up in the Vermont women’s prisons for non-violent drug-related crimes.

Some of the most amazing human beings I have ever met were in that jail. Most of them have passed away now, and I have to say I was never offered real long-term treatment, and for the most part, neither were they. I went twice to treatment on my own.

I am the CEO and founder of this blog, I am a professional coach, a member of the NAACP, a Shatterproof ambassador, and don’t you know, the minute I wasn’t being torn apart by the Department of Corrections, the state attorney’s office and the rest of the VT judicial system, I turned my life around after a near lifelong addiction to IV heroin.

 

Now, I help those who haven’t been that fortunate. I have been trying to get in front of the Vermont legislature for about five years now. Thank you for writing the post below. Seriously. Those women need an advocate who doesn’t have a criminal background because I can attest to the fact that nobody cares what they have to say. At least nobody that works for the state.

Something close to 90% of Vermont’s women’s population is there as a result of their drug addiction. Last I checked, ninety-something percent have suffered as a result of severe trauma and suffer from mental health issues. Don’t you think there might be a high probability that the many women we lost to drug overdose could be a result of the conditions or the employees within that facility? I know too much to stay quiet.

We have lost so many of those women I grew up with. I can’t tell you that I would have chosen death over returning to that facility had I had the choice, and I know many of the women felt the same, especially when most of us were locked up for things like ‘lack of an approvable residence’s, having an unauthorized visitor, etc.

My life was lost within those walls, and there is no making it okay now. I made one poor choice and was an unsupported youth with nobody who cared. Most of us were. I was NEVER a bad person; I just had a bad drug problem.

I was charged with three felony escapes that aren’t even charges now, and I never even went on escape. I went to a grocery store that wasn’t on my pass, and I went to Hampton Beach—no GPS for me.

Vermont residents who suffer from SUD aren’t like the rest of the nation. (Most, anyway.) We are Vermonters, and we care about doing the right thing.

Even now, I am stigmatized within my niche. Vermont has a flawed system that doesn’t work. Why can’t I seem to get in front of the legislature to share my story? They don’t want to hear it because I was just another “lowly drug-addicted Vermont resident who was a drain on Vermont resources.

We all know that addiction has no prejudice, and as soon as the higher-up functioning members of society realize this, they can start making moves that matter. I was beaten down so severely by this system that I began thinking I wasn’t worth it, and the thought of other young Vermont men and women going through what I went through kills me. I keep asking myself, ‘What can I do?’ and coming up empty. I’ve tried everything.

I can’t even get Guest Posts within the Addiction Recovery niche, so I went on to the Personal Development and Spirituality niche, where I am able to be seen for more than my addiction and status as a five-time convicted felon when almost all of my FELONIES are not only no longer felonies but no longer criminal charges at all. We are Vermont Strong only if you fit into a perfect little box, and it sickens me.

So please tell me why I spent twenty-plus years of my life going in and out of jail when I never hurt anybody but myself. I would love to know what’s worth a young life being ruthlessly wasted before addiction was considered a disease. Give me my life back, man.

Why were we ruthlessly ripped off our maintenance and mental health meds and forced to detox for having an unauthorized visitor or being out of place?

Fu#$ Vermont! Fu#$ Vermont! The State of Vermont employs much worse criminals than we ever thought of being. That’s how I feel about this. Not that anyone cares, but Fu$& Vermont for caring so little about our young lives and caring more about having ‘the example’ to keep them rest in line.

If you are interested in some of the other posts in the series…

Addiction & Incarceration: Breaking the Silence and Giving a Voice to Addicts in the Criminal Justice System Slice 1

A Vermont Women’s Prison Story (Slice 2 of the Series)

If you are interested in contributing to the series, click here and let me know, or submit your work with the title ‘Submission.’