Vermont's shipping of prisoners to other states may bring racist views back home

Vermont was the first state to prohibit slavery in its constitution, allow civil unions and legalize same-sex marriage, but some of the state's criminals who are housed in out-of-state prisons are bringing back to Vermont a way of life contrary to its progressive reputation. Timothy Dufresne, right, first began adopting radical white supremacist behavior when housed in an out-of-state prison, which he used to help start the gang Hitler's Henchmen upon his release, Neal P. Goswami of the Bennington Banner reports. (Banner photo by Peter Crabtree) Just days after his interview with the Banner, Dufresne allegedly seriously wounded a neighbor in a fight by beating him with a broomstick, though court documents offer no indication that the attack was motivated by his white supremacist beliefs. Dufresne said his interest in joining a gang arose from self-preservation while in prison in Virginia, and Hitler's Henchmen was created as an offshoot of the Aryan Brotherhood, the largest white supremacist prison gang in the country.

Vermont has a contract with "Corrections Corporation of America to house many of its long-term inmates in Kentucky and Tennessee, although previous contracts have sent inmates to facilities in Alabama, Virginia, Texas and other states,' Goswami writes. "There are certainly pros and cons to sending offenders out-of-state," Vermont Agency of Human Services Secretary Robert Hofmann told Goswami. "In the con category would be the opportunity to meet offenders out-of-state who would have a negative influence on them. ... "I think 49 other states would trade their problems with Vermont in a heartbeat."

Steve Owen, a spokesman for CCA, which operates 65 prisons in 20 states, says the companies prisons are not incubators for radical views: "I don't think that's been our experience, to be honest with you." Vermont saves around $30,000 per inmate by housing them in CCA facilities. Virginia Department of Corrections officials say Dufrense's descriptions of the group's membership are vastly overestimated and report to the best of its knowledge the group has only five members. "I wouldn't necessarily say serious, but they're making an attempt," Dominic Damato, the DOC's security and compliance auditor, told Goswami.

There is reason for concern, Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, told Goswami: "This is a phenomenon we see quite a lot of. Very often, people go to prison for crimes that really have nothing to do with race, but they find themselves very often in extremely racialized prisons. For their own safety they seem to join race-based gangs." (Read more)