Disability Rights Vermont urges state to invest in community supports to reduce institutionalization
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Summary
Disability Rights Vermont told the Senate Institutions Committee that the state’s protection‑and‑advocacy role exposes recurring harms inside corrections and that expanding community mental‑health supports and reentry services — including ensuring IDs for people leaving prison — would reduce costly institutional stays and improve outcomes.
Lindsey Saint Amore, executive director of Disability Rights Vermont, told the Senate Institutions Committee on Institutions that the agency’s federal protection‑and‑advocacy authority has repeatedly identified gaps in how the state serves people with disabilities in corrections and inpatient psychiatric facilities. Saint Amore described litigation and settlement outcomes that led to policy changes on self‑harm monitoring, detox supervision after in‑custody deaths, and a 72‑hour transfer expectation for people identified as needing hospital care.
Those cases, she said, show a pattern: people who need supports often remain in high‑level institutional settings because community capacity or transition services are missing. “There are 50 to 60 people in the hospital on any given day who don’t need to be there,” Saint Amore said, arguing that investing in community‑based supports would both lower costs and produce better, safer outcomes.
Why it matters: Committee members pressed Saint Amore on whether Vermont needs more inpatient beds or stronger community care. Saint Amore argued the problem is often lack of community placements and supports — not simply a shortage of facilities — and recommended proactive investments in schools, families, primary care access and counseling to prevent crises that end in institutional stays.
Saint Amore also raised concrete operational barriers that affect reentry: a settlement requiring timely hospital transfers for people identified as needing higher medical or psychiatric care, and a recent case that led to improved access to assistive devices (hearing aids) after an individual went nearly a year without functioning equipment and was disciplined when they could not hear staff. She relayed a suggestion from Ken Russell of Another Way to consider legislation ensuring people exiting correctional facilities leave with identification, which she said would remove barriers to employment and benefits.
Committee response and next steps: Senators acknowledged the scale of the problem and the tension between voluntary community supports and structured, accountable programs. Chair Wendy Harrison invited Disability Rights Vermont to return with written materials and regular updates; Saint Amore said she will provide written testimony and follow up with recommendations drawn from recent death investigations and settlements.
The committee did not take a formal vote on any policy during the hearing; the exchange ended with a request that the agency be placed on a future agenda for further discussion.