Vermont extends contract to house inmates in Mississippi

(AP) — Interim Corrections Commissioner Jim Baker says Vermont has extended its contract for a year to house more than 200 inmates at a private Mississippi prison with some new stipulations after an outbreak of the coronavirus infected a majority of the Vermont inmates.

He said Thursday that the Corrections Department also hopes to put a plan in place to end the practice of shipping inmates to Mississippi, which it does because of a lack of capacity in Vermont prisons.

Baker says none of the 211 inmates housed at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility operated by CoreCivic currently have COVID-19.