Let me tell you about just a portion of the discrimination that William and other inmates deal with at Northlake Correctional Facility. Last week a search was conducted by the staff at Northlake Correctional Facility on the housing unit of H-2. There was contraband found and about 6 inmates were taken to the segregation unit. William was one of those inmates. His cell and person were searched by the staff and they did not find any contraband on his person or in his cell. The staff at Northlake did write a disciplinary ticket for William, charging him with introduction of contraband. They held a disciplinary hearing on this ticket and in the hearing refused to answer William's questions about why or how he was being charged without having been found with contraband, or linked to the contraband that was found. William's hearing assistant also didn't properly help William to prepare for the hearing, he never brought him a policy that William asked for, in fact he never even came back to see William before the hearing. When William brought up these points during the hearing, they were ignored by the hearing officer. Despite a clear lack of evidence, William was found guilty at his disciplinary hearing and sentenced to 30 days in segregation. The staff at Northlake have shown that they make their own rules in regards to the disciplinary hearings and unfairly hold inmates in segregation for extended periods of time. William is currently spending his time in segregation working on legal appeals and grievances over the obvious lack of due process going on at Northlake Correctional Facility.

There is a lot of talk lately about whether or not the Vermont Inmates being housed in Michigan will continue at Northlake Correctional Facility. Michigan has a potential need for the facility to house their own inmates, and housing them in the same facility with Vermont inmates is not an option. I am desperately hoping that the contract Vermont has with the GEO group will as a result come to an end, to bring the inmates back home to this state and their families. Northlake Correctional Facility has the capacity to hold 1,740 inmates. The current contract with the GEO group is to house up to 675 Vermont Inmates there. Currently there are approximately 230 Vermont inmates. Seems like a huge waste of space and money is going on here. Not to mention how everything is more expensive in Michigan, the commissary products, the phone time. It doesn't take long before the bills are piling up to stay connected with loved ones. William tries to ration out the phone calls, but even by doing that it can get pretty expensive. I do like that I can message him on Jpay if there is something I need to talk about, or if I want him to call me, but he does not get to use the Jpay system all of the time. Also, every message and picture sent on Jpay costs one stamp per item. A video gram is 3 stamps, which is 30 seconds of one way video. A 2 way video visit is 30 minutes and cost $10. So again, it is easy to see how quickly this can add up to a lot in terms of cost. There are not any rehabilitation programs going on in Michigan, so inmates that are housed there have nothing to do to fill their time. There are very limited jobs for them out there as well. The entire private prison system is a money scheme and does nothing to aid in the rehabilitation of offenders.

My name is Lauren and I am 33 years old. My husband is an inmate currently incarcerated in Michigan. He has been in jail for over 3 years, and still has almost 4 years left on his bid. We talk on the phone frequently, write letters and also have an email messaging system called Jpay. Through Jpay we can send messages, pictures, 30 second video gram messages and also can do 30 minute video visits. I have not physically seen my husband since September of 2013. Despite all the obstacles against us, our love and relationship continue to grow daily. We have a bond that cannot be broken, nor easily understood by the world around us. I have started this blog to shed light on the corruption, bias and discrimination of the Vermont DOC. Yes, my husband is a Vermont Inmate that has been shipped out of state to a private facility 12 hours away from his family and loved ones. That is just one of the injustices that has been dealt to us and countless other families at the hands of the Vermont DOC. This blog is my story. Thanks for tuning in.