[B]URLINGTON — A trio of self-described libertarian Republican candidates, including attorney general hopeful Janssen Willhoit, made a small-government pitch for criminal justice reform on Monday.
Gathered outside Courthouse Plaza in Burlington on a chilly and wet fall afternoon, state Senate candidate Paul Dame (Chittenden) and House candidate Deserae Morin (Colchester) joined Willhoit, a House member from St. Johnsbury, in making a case for criminal justice reform focusing on fiscal responsibility.
“Criminal justice reform is not an issue that a lot of Republicans like to talk about, but there’s a good case to be made, especially in the area of being fiscally conservative,” Dame said. “Every dollar we save there is a dollar that stays in the pocket of Vermonters.”
While Willhoit criticized Democratic Attorney General TJ Donovan as not going far enough on criminal justice reform, the trio also addressed the need to convert fellow Republicans to their side.
Willhoit, who works as a public defender in Windham County, argued that drug use should be seen more as a health crisis than criminal behavior, a position that lines up with the national criminal justice reform movement — and Donovan.
But Willhoit argued that he has proposed legislation that was weakened by compromises from Donovan’s office. For example, he said he proposed a bill to eliminate cash bail for non-violent drug offenses, but Donovan eventually recommended setting a cap at $200.
“The unfortunate reality is for so many that are still in the throes of addiction, and battling those struggles, even a dollar, five dollars, will keep them held because there’s no one that’s going to bail them out,” he said.
Willhoit said he recently saw a woman held on the $200 bail. The law went into effect in July.
He is also opposed to the state’s recent decision to send around 250 inmates to a private prison facility in Mississippi and said he would limit the state’s prison population to keep prisoners in-state.
“The impact that that has on those families, not only those that were actually the perpetrator but their greater family, far outweighs whatever fiscal short term benefit it has,” Willhoit said. “That keeps people away from any support structures they have.”
Donovan has touted his record on criminal justice reform during his re-election campaign. He said Monday night that he was also proud of his work on bail reform.
He said a nominal fee was necessary because of how “bailable offenses” are described in the constitution. “Hence the $200. And I thought that was a fair amount that was nominal that would not unduly or unfairly keep people in,” he said.
The attorney general is also against private prisons but has said that he understood the Department of Corrections’ decision given the poor conditions at the inmates’ previous location in Pennsylvania.
Donovan said Monday that he has pursued an array of reforms and programs aimed at reducing the prison population, such as initiatives aimed at issues including diversion, mental health, substance abuse, pretrial services, transitional housing and compassionate release.
Willhoit said he has filled a vacuum in the Legislature to lead on criminal justice reform. He touted his partnership with Rep. Selene Coburn, P-Burlington, on a number of bills, including one to rule out felony charges for drug possession.
“If someone is just using the substance, there is no inclination they are selling or distributing but they are in the throes of addiction, they should not be a felon and be stuck in prison,” he said.
He said his effort has been thwarted by Democratic leadership.
Morin was in the news last weekend after state police opened an investigation into a threatening letter she had received. She said Monday there were no updates on the investigation that she could share publicly.
During the press conference, she said that the bail system disproportionately hurts lower-income Vermonters and adds to the state’s incarceration numbers — and the price tag that goes along with incarceration.
“I think it’s really important that we talk about as a community the effect that unnecessary incarceration can have on our friends and neighbors, especially in regards to non-violent crimes and the impact that that’s going to have on these people for the rest of their lives,” she said.
Dame touched on a handful of other policy positions. He said the state’s prisons have a problem with access to substance abuse treatment, and that the state should find a new provider.
Prisoners’ advocates filed a complaint against the current provider, Centurion, in September alleging that the company is providing “unsafe and unacceptable patient care” and not adequately following a recently passed law that expands addiction treatment for inmates.
“By implementing these and other policies, we can curb the sometimes drastic fiscal, economic and social cost of incarcerating people who are suffering from addiction and improve the effectiveness and fairness of our criminal justice system for a safer, more prosperous Vermont,” he said.
Willhoit said many Vermont Democrats support his policy positions on criminal justice reform and that he would encourage voters to examine the records of officials they’ve been voting for.
Dame said he was optimistic that if President Donald Trump moves forward with criminal justice reform, Vermont Republicans will follow suit.
“The people who are most antagonistic to this are huge Trump supporters to the point of whatever Trump says, they’ll do,” he said.
Trump has said that the criminal justice system is “very unfair” to African-Americans and “very costly.”
Republican presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan enacted lengthy mandatory-minimum sentencing for drug offenses during their presidencies. Data shows that these policies disproportionately jailed African-Americans.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other “tough on crime” politicians argue that drug use is a dangerous criminal behavior.
But Willhoit believes that criminal justice reform fits into Republican ideology.
“The Republican Party is a very broad tent, and there are people on my side who don’t like the things I’m saying right now,” Willhoit said. “But the reason I am a Republican is because of fellow Republicans like the ones standing next to me who are libertarian-minded. This is liberty.”
