Recent reporting by Seven Days has highlighted the culture of sexual assault, harassment and exploitation of both women inmates and staff at Vermont’s only prison for women, the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility. In the wake of this alarming report, Women’s March Vermont and ACLU of Vermont are hosting an open community forum to discuss desperately needed systems accountability and immediate change.
The reporting has brought to light what many have known for years and that many have also sadly experienced: a pervasive culture of rape, victimization and the unspoken consequences of over-incarceration. This facility has been operating in plain sight, in Vermont’s most populous county and adjacent to Vermont’s most populous city, yet the problems persist seemingly unchecked.
Key decision-makers in attendance are the Deputy Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Human Services Martha Maksym, the Director of Correctional Facilities Mike Touchette, and the Executive Director of the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence Karen Tronsgard-Scott.
Ashley Messier of the ACLU of Vermont’s Smart Justice Campaign moderates the forum.
We offer this forum as an opportunity for the community and impacted people to connect with stakeholders and those in power, in order to engage in honest and transformative conversation around the systemic change that is so desperately warranted.
