SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – A big rally Saturday outside Vermont’s only women’s prison. State officials are looking to build a new facility but some believe prison’s are not the answer.
Protesters pleading with the Department of Corrections to not build a new women’s prison.
“We are here, literally to let them know how much we do care. They are not forgotten about,” said former inmate Tiffany Harrington.
Harrington was an inmate at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility for fifteen years. She says she doesn’t believe in the states new plan to create a trauma informed women’s prison.
“Bottom line, they try to say that there are programing and trauma based, trauma informed prison. That is not the case. Prison itself is inherently traumatic. I actually developed a mental health disorder, just by being incarcerated,” said Harrington.
For the last couple years a pitch to build a new women’s prison that could cost over 90 million dollars has been on the state’s docket.
Officials say there have been several reports that the current prison has unsafe living conditions with reports of bugs and mold. But these protesters would rather not see millions of dollars spent on a new prison, preferring something other than incarceration.
“Alternatives could be supportive housing. There is also so many women waiting for a rehab bed. So we could just be building out the existing supports we have to actually be able to address the urgent needs,” said Jayna Ahsaf, FreeHer Vermont Campaign director.
Officials at Vermont’s Department of Corrections say the proposed new facility is state-of-the-art and designed for rehabilitation.
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