Vermont inmates housed at Pennsylvania’s Camp Hill state prison say guards are mistreating them and threatening retaliation when they report abuse. Vermont officials, limited by distance and the legal agreement between the two states, have little power to intervene.
Kirk Wool, a Vermont inmate serving time at Camp Hill for kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault, documented what he alleged are exact quotes from a corrections officer on November 20.
“You motherfuckers run your mouth, I’ll end it. I swear,” the officer told a group of Vermont inmates, according to Wool. He reported the guard’s behavior to prison officials. The officer returned to Wool’s cell the next day. “You like to press charges; call the police,” Wool recounted the officer saying. “Make sure you spell my name right.”
The incident convinced Wool that staff members receiving reports of mistreatment are relaying those complaints — and the identities of the inmates making them — to guards, he wrote to the facility’s superintendent. Wool provided a copy of his complaint to Seven Days.
Because of the geographic distance, and because Pennsylvania limits inmates’ ability to communicate, Seven Days and prisoner advocates have been unable to verify inmates’ claims. Nevertheless, some lawmakers and activists are aware of the allegations and are concerned about Vermont’s ability to keep Camp Hill inmates safe.
Sending prisoners out of state isn’t new. Vermont has been doing it for more than a decade. Currently, the state has a $21 million, three-year deal with Pennsylvania to house more than 200 Vermonters at Camp Hill. Under the agreement, the inmates are officially in the care of Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections and its laws and policies. Unlike past housing arrangements with private contractors, Vermont no longer makes the rules for how guards treat its out-of-state inmates.
That puts Pennsylvania in charge of holding guards accountable for the way prisoners are treated. Inmates such as Wool have reported both threats and intimidation.
In a letter to Seven Days, inmate Jabbar Chandler said he was distraught when he learned that his friend, 62-year-old Herbert Rodgers — whom Chandler affectionately referred to as “Grandpa” — had died in December. Rodgers was the third Vermonter to die after being transferred to Camp Hill. Roger Brown, 68, died of metastatic cancer in October, and Tim Adams, 59, died the following month shortly after he was transferred back to Vermont from the Pennsylvania facility.
Chandler recalled how he loudly declared that he’d tell the media about the way Rodgers was treated in the final days of his life. Officers responded, Chandler wrote, by warning him, “That wouldn’t be smart” and mentioning that there could be “consequences” for contacting the media.
Other inmates have reported threats to the advocacy group Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform.
“It is to the level where people say they’re afraid that they will be killed,” said Tom Dalton, the group’s executive director. “Whether that’s a reasonable threat, I don’t know, but the fact that somebody feels that way is certainly a red flag.”
Inmates have also written to elected officials. Rep. David Yacovone (D-Morristown) said he plans to question Vermont Corrections Commissioner Lisa Menard when she appears before the House Appropriations Committee to discuss the department’s budget.
“I try to think [about] if I were a mom or dad [and] that was my son,” Yacovone said. “I’d want to know that I could count on the system to tell me what was just and what was right.
“Two [inmates] outright said, ‘I have to be careful, Dave, what I say to you because of retaliation from the officers,'” Yacovone continued. “No one saying specifically, ‘I was abused or violated by an officer,’ but there’s this intimidation — threats that I guess were verbal.”
More than five inmates at Camp Hill have complained to Dalton and his staff about threats or other forms of mistreatment by guards.
“Somebody said that two officers had dragged them off to an area off-camera, grabbed them by the shirt and lifted them off the ground,” Dalton said.
Dalton said he’s been unable to verify the complaints. “I can drive to a correctional facility in Vermont and meet with somebody and talk to them,” he said. “I can’t do that in Pennsylvania.”
The potential for retaliation makes inmates wary of their communications, which can be monitored, Dalton said.
“There seems to be a certain level of fear and paranoia that’s not normal and that we don’t usually see [inmates] talk about,” Dalton said, noting that some inmates call the prison “Camp Hell.”
Because of limited phone access, Camp Hill inmates rely mostly on letters and a pay-per-message online system similar to email. In letters to Seven Days, three inmates detailed threats they say corrections officials have made since mid-December.
Vermont’s deputy corrections commissioner, Mike Touchette, told the House Corrections and Institutions Committee on January 9 that budgetary concerns restrict Vermont’s ability to force Pennsylvania to change conditions for Vermonters.
“The more demands we place on the receiving state to provide services or follow our policies and procedures, it requires additional staffing, which drives the price up,” he said.
Prison officials in both states said systems are in place to address problems like the ones inmates are alleging, and they expressed frustration that inmates are going public instead of using proper channels to air their grievances.
“One of the common themes is ‘[Corrections officers] are threatening us,'” Touchette said. “Well, OK, tell us more about that.”
Without details such as the names of officers or the circumstances of the threats, not much can be done, Touchette said, adding that inmates should use the Pennsylvania prison’s official grievance process. That generates a record of the complaint and officials’ response, allowing Vermont officials to check to ensure prisoner concerns are appropriately handled.
Asked about threats of retaliation against inmates, Touchette said he is aware of those reports but hasn’t learned of any cases in which guards followed through on their warnings.
Pennsylvania officials refused to comment on the specific allegations sent to Seven Days.
“The DOC will not conduct its grievance process through the media, nor does it provide any information regarding investigations,” Pennsylvania DOC press secretary Amy Worden wrote in an email. “We can say that the safety and security of staff and inmates is at the core of the DOC mission, and the agency works every day to maintain that goal. Additionally, the PA DOC is in regular contact with the Vermont DOC regarding their inmates.”
With Pennsylvania’s DOC unwilling to discuss the allegations and Vermont officials deferring to Pennsylvania on guard conduct, there is no way for advocates, the press or the public to know how the guards are treating — or mistreating — the Vermont inmates assigned to their care.
“I’m concerned,” Yacovone said of the inmate reports, “but it’s very hard for me to verify.”
Related Stories
This article appears in Jan 31 – Feb 6, 2018.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
If the State is willing to send prisoners out of state by contract, surely its not too much to ask for someone to go to PA in person to scope things out. VT still has a responsibility for the human life in its custody.
How is this not a violation of the principle of “punishment commensurate with the crime”? If Vermont cannot afford to keep the number of people that the state chooses to imprison, then it cannot afford to sentence them in the first place. The whole process seems barbaric. Vermont is a low population, rural state with lots of opportunity for community management of troubled individuals. Time to upgrade the system to a decentralized process for community involvement and care. People need to stay connected.
Unverified verbal threats. That’s what this is all about. Wah…. “Kirk Wool, a Vermont inmate serving time at Camp Hill for kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault….” Please, just stop right there. You mean a rapist. A rapist is complaining that he was verbally threatened. If he is not scared every day of his life while in prison, then the punishment is not working. Sorry not sorry.
The inmates who complain to authorities say that they are threatened the next day with reference to their complaint. This, if true, certainly causes some reluctance to use the system supplied for grievances. It all comes back to Vermont’s abrogation of responsibility for its inmates. It closed one prison recently, which certainly should raise some eyebrows. There is now floated a ten year plan for an adequate prison, to be built apparently by one of the most abusive private prison companies, which again raises some eyebrows. I wish the people of this state would rise up in high dudgeon and tell the powers that be to stop sentencing people to prisons if we don’t have a place to put them, and to start looking for real solutions, not band-aids.
Im sure that Mr. Wools victim had their feelings crushed when he raped them. I hope the guards at Camp you deserve what ever comes your way treat him like the piece of shit he is. If he cant do the time he should have not committed the crime. Being a prisoner means you have lost your rights until you have repaid your debt to society. I hope the guards give Mr. Wool a wool blanket party. Rot in Hell Mr. Wool.
I suppose I should be more sympathetic to the plight of Mr. Wool, but I’m not. I have a hard time considering they’re victims within considering their victims.
The most venal comments here are written by people who hide their identities. They are cowards and Seven Days should require them to post under their real names.
Is Christopher Hill actually Christopher Hill or is he an impostor the online world will never know. Mr.Hill if that is indeed your real name find a better argument than someone choosing to remain anonymous in order to discredit facts.
@ Christopher Hill
And why might people choose to remain anonymous online? I’d guess, and I’m just spitballin’ here, that some fear that people such as you would try to ruin their lives for expressing an opinion.
That’s why only idiots use Facebook.
Folks such as you shroud yourselves in self-righteous cloaks of superiority but blow away into the wind when faced with a logical argument.
Long story short, you seem to be a mean-spirited, not-that-smart little man.
Maybe look up Kirk Wool’s crimes before you make a comment. I did. I’ll spare the gallery the details, but they’re horrific.
Fuck Kirk Wool. He’s lucky that a few harsh words from prison guards making $10 an hour is the least of his worries. I have more sympathy for his victim, assuming there’s just the one that we know about.
This article caused someone in the Pennsylvania system to go around questioning and intimidating all the inmates. Be careful throwing names around like this.
First off, Jabbar Chandler, the person mentioned in the article as having been threatened and advised that getting the word out “would not be in his interest” has been sent to the hole and has been there for more than a week. Camp Hill has not made the charges known.
Second. As an attorney, I have been in regular contact with Mr. Wool. He has been incarcerated since 1990 and has spent much of his time helping others. In addition as advocating for inmates via the court system, he has twice received letters of commendation from the VT DOC for risking his own safety by protecting prison personnel. The first instance was during a riot in Kentucky and more recently in Michigan, where another inmate jumped a guard. If he were free, I would much prefer Kirk Wool as a neighbor to many who shoot their mouths off here.
Third. Under the Interstate Compact and the contract with PA (yes there is a specific contract) Vermont inmates do not lose the legal rights they have under Vermont law. And of course the protections of the Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment trump [if I can still use that word] any actions of a state or states.
Fourth. One of the rights guaranteed to Vermont prisoners is the right to vote. Yet, PA officials have confiscated absentee ballots – which I presume are for the upcoming Town Meeting day votes that are carried out via Australian Ballot. Voting residency is neither obtained or lost because of place of incarceration.
I forgot to mention that an email to Commissioner of Corrections Lisa Menard concerning the confiscation of absentee ballots was read three days ago, but remains unanswered.
As someone who lives in pa an has a loved one in camp hill they are cruel an make them feel like they are less then human from not allowing showers for 6 days at a time to threating them with write ups if they cause rift raff for the guards the pa doc has been locked down for 9 days now an we are lucky if camp hill listens to the sec. Of pa doc an allows one call a day am rec time which they havent been doing granted I understand they commit crimes but in the same hand we are not God an we have no right to judge an just because they are in prison does not make them less of a human am before anyone trus to attack my comment my husband is there for a dui while on parole