Vermont’s plan for a new women’s correctional facility receives pushback [Video]

A group of Vermonters wants to put a stop to the plans for a new women’s prison.More than 30 people protested in Burlington on Monday and said they don’t want to see any new prisons in Vermont.The state’s Department of Corrections says the problem with the current facility, Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, is that it’s more than 50 years old.Two sites in Essex, Vermont, are being considered as the future home of Vermont’s women’s facility.The state plans to invest around $70 million in the project to build a brand new, 158-bed women’s correctional facility.However, some believe that the money should be spent elsewhere.”We have about 100 folks who are detained or sentenced in our women’s prison,” said Jayna Ahsaf, a member of FreeHer Vermont. “This is a huge amount of money to be spending on a system that doesn’t work and only causes our communities more trauma and harm.”Instead, the …