Meetings
Transcript: Select text below to play or share a clip
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: Welcome, folks. This is House Corrections and Institutions Committee. It is Friday, April 3. We're finishing up our work for the week, and we need to spend some time just kind of talking as a committee in terms of what we would like to do over the next couple of weeks and talk about what issues and how folks that and testify. I do have to step out for a moment. I do have the meeting that's scheduled at 11:30. I hope to be back. But if I don't come back and you're all finished, it's time to go home. I hope everyone has a really restful and a weekend with family or you all leave, if someone or a couple people make sure you take some notes, I should be able to circle back here before lunch. Okay. So from there, I can work with Tate on Monday. Tate's still about the second.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Yeah. Shawn, victim's notification. I'll start there. Okay. We need to get in the prosecutors, which just which is Tim. So Tim Lewis is right, Bob. And Kim McManus?
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: Will we discuss in which topic?
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: The notification.
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: Oh. Yeah. The I do. It's notification. I didn't hear you.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Is there anybody that anybody else wants to talk to or issues on that issue before somebody suggests a different issue? Will? Nope. Nope. Like who
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: else would be out there?
[Kevin Winter (Member)]: I forget the young lady's name who was a victim and was on
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: campus that had to get off. Kelsey Rice. Right.
[Kevin Winter (Member)]: Yeah. Would it be, I would have liked to hear from her.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: Yes. I'll write her name down.
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: She said she wanted to.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Kevin wants to hear more. We wanna hear more.
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: Give her to ask. Her little leprechaun was on. Well,
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: is there anything else on the victim's notification one specifically?
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: I think that brings us to where we need to be. Thanks. I I can't anybody else who wasn't here yesterday. Right.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Because we know that we have to get DOC back at some point, and that's not gonna be this week regarding our just form and stuff. But that Go ahead.
[Kevin Winter (Member)]: Maybe high in the sky, but if we could figure out someone at the systems level, the computer systems level, needs voice our crazy ideas as to how things could be They're not crazy. We've got to
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: be We can, so ANS or ADS. ADS. So put that on the list, Shawn, if you do. Say that again. ADS.
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: Yes.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Edible Compute. To discuss potential networking or Right. We'll word it better later.
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: Because otherwise, it's not just lymphalange.
[Kevin Winter (Member)]: Mean, we're talking about a brand new form.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Yeah. But we can get more specific after. Okay. Alright. So any other issues that like, what other topics do you guys wanna talk to? I know that there's a few up here that we brought up. Troy?
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: Yeah. I'd still like to continue the work that we had begun but didn't finish for H550 on healthcare. So getting WellPath in here to talk specifically about gender primary care within our correctional facilities. I don't
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: think John can write that fast. I also may have caught up. I got it. Okay. Continue. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's You got well path and and health care. Okay. Yep. Because I knew that was gonna be one of the top ones.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: What, Troy, is that like, what if what we need for 05:50? Well,
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: mean, I will let's start with well path because they're gonna they're gonna tell us
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: What way to go? Yeah. We're gonna give
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: us anybody else that we need to talk.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: Okay. Yeah.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: We're gonna fork. So what else? What what else does somebody want to talk about?
[Shawn Sweeney (Clerk)]: Conor has his hand up.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Conor?
[Conor Casey (Member)]: We took the damn study language out of the capital bill just for time. Yes. But I know Ben Green has some comments on that.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Yes. Maybe he can
[Conor Casey (Member)]: put the beds. So, yeah, if we could get Ben Green in, that'd be great. Oh,
[Shawn Sweeney (Clerk)]: are we on the other topics now? Yeah. We're Oh, sorry.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: This was your chance.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: Does that include, like because we're gonna go visit the the dam too. Right? Don't we wanna go see that? Is that
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: I'm sorry. I'm to Mississippi, but We do wanna go see the Waterbury Dam. Okay.
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: And then visit. It's actually kinda wood. No. We're just
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: that's not a big We are on camera. So Yeah. So the green for the dams of site visit to the the dam. Anything else about the dams, Conor? Just how pronounced? Okay.
[Conor Casey (Member)]: It was just the whole issue of whether to consolidate them under Right. One entity or
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: That's what
[Kevin Winter (Member)]: I was gonna say. Consolidation question of consolidation, people who are currently responsible for a part.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Yeah, I think we can start with one person and then work our way and see what, you know, because it seems on one level to make sense to consolidate, right? And on the other hand, maybe there's a reason, but it doesn't seem to make sense. But what's another topic? So get through this as quick as we can. Brian?
[Brian Minier (Member)]: So starting with the topic and then going to the topic is legal representation for federal detainees. And I think there are different angles into that in terms of who would present. One was brought up yesterday with the techie folks about how many devices do they have, how are they set up, is this Yeah,
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: and what they do.
[Brian Minier (Member)]: The other part of it is just to get an update. And I don't know if this would be from DOC or if it would be from one of the advocacy groups like the Asylum Assistance Project or ACLU, but what's going on? Has it improved?
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: What's the status of our letter? We had talked about redoing a letter with Brynn. So maybe getting that conversation going too. Yep.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: Shawn, catch up. So then legal representation with in regards to
[Brian Minier (Member)]: ICE detainees. Specifically for the federal detainees. Yes.
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: And we heard testimony yesterday that the victim's advocates felt that there was a fairly robust translation services and that there's this supposed number of laptop or available for lawyers who are coming in for victims.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Stories aren't meshing is what I'm saying.
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: Yeah, but how are they running them if we don't know why we don't know if they-
[Brian Minier (Member)]: I thought I understood Haley I'm sorry. I thought I understood Haley to say that they had set up a hotspot or two perhaps.
[Shawn Sweeney (Clerk)]: Yeah. Did. Yeah.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Running its way through. It's being one run. Right.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: And Well, I have a question. Yep. So and maybe you someone here can answer it. But, like, don't you need like, if you're gonna use a a a phone and or any kind of phone cell phone, and you clear everything off of it, but you're using it just for translating, you still need to cook up to
[Kevin Winter (Member)]: Right. Absolutely. Or something. Right? That's what I was saying.
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: We need
[Kevin Winter (Member)]: So is that what she
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: was getting at, that there's Wi Fi in the areas where the Wi Fi is an absent from there.
[Kevin Winter (Member)]: It's an
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: absent facility. It's not as expansive as it needs to be.
[Shawn Sweeney (Clerk)]: I see. So, like, out
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: in the like, when you go into CRCF, like, out front there, like, in in the office.
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: I wouldn't be able
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: to tell
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: We don't know
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: anything one of us says is speculation, the general idea is probably it's either in booking or there's a room where you meet your clients that has Wi Fi or something that just doesn't have it out in the general quarters area. But we'll find that out in our conversations.
[Kevin Winter (Member)]: Yeah, that was great news.
[Brian Minier (Member)]: Seemed like it Hopefully, yes. So did
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: you get enough there to make it legible and understandable? Yeah. Okay.
[Brian Minier (Member)]: Well, that's ADS again, although they've been invited, we can invite them again.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: That's whole other question.
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: Yeah. That's correct.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: Well, I'll write that down though, Brian, that it is ADS in that situation.
[Brian Minier (Member)]: Yeah. For at least part of this conversation. Okay.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: So Definitely. What else? I mean, we don't necessarily need a million things, but if there's other things that are, yeah, well.
[Shawn Sweeney (Clerk)]: Yeah. I apologize for loading our plate up even more, but I had someone reach out to me about wanting to discuss plastic alternatives.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Probably had mentioned that to Alice in the past. Plastic alternatives in correctional institutions. And you know who it is, right?
[Shawn Sweeney (Clerk)]: Yes. So paying attention to it.
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: Plastic alternatives. Basically like trying
[Shawn Sweeney (Clerk)]: to minimize the use of plastic in our facilities. So I'd be curious, and I was gonna follow-up with Ben, kind of what you guys would maybe wanna hear from that. I'm assuming lower cost alternatives and then also environmentally.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Yeah, I don't know the use of plastics. I mean, I know one like
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: to make Which why don't
[Shawn Sweeney (Clerk)]: sell about it either, so I think it'd be interesting to learn about something about it.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: Just a quick question there, because I don't know. Do they eat like did they eat on stuff like on ceramic and silverware? I think they used
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: to have trays, like yeah. Like a
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: Do they get real silverware though?
[Brian Minier (Member)]: I can't. We're gonna be a real toothbrush.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: Why don't we find
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: out on Wednesday when we go to the prison?
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: Okay, friends, good.
[Shawn Sweeney (Clerk)]: Can ask some these questions too.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Because I I think I know the answer, but I I like you guys know. I always say that. I don't speculate. Give you an answer, then somebody goes, well, he said it was silverware. It's it's made out of wood. Well, you know? Right. So anyways, we'll find out, So you know? But you understood what the concept of what Yeah. I was because what matters is because you get the notes. Right. Anything else? Mary's thinking hard. Conor again, why Mary's thinking.
[Conor Casey (Member)]: Yeah. Without getting into the politics of it, we should probably start talking about the state employees return to work after that labor board case. Because we rented a lot of space. What are the ramifications of that?
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: You know, put that in the context of space utilization or whatever. Because the actual contract obviously is none of our business, but use of space and the cost of that is our purview.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: I mean, that sounds like a
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: VGS thing. Probably, but doesn't mean when we'll Right. Yeah. VGS, yes. But we'll check-in with them.
[Brian Minier (Member)]: Well, also, is it our understanding that that BLRB decision will be appealed?
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Yeah. Yeah. It will be appealed.
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: And whether or not it stayed
[Brian Minier (Member)]: And does anybody have a guess of what timing on that is? I mean I know. Because I'm interested in this, but with it may not be actionable for No.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Some time. Put it on our list and Yeah. Yeah. And does that
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: mean we get Steve Howard in here?
[Shawn Sweeney (Clerk)]: I I think we should Oh, definitely. Wanted to talk to us.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: So that would give him a good, like, a good lead in.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: And that will be you know, I don't know that that would be something that comes up next week because as Brian pointed out, we don't know where this stands, but it's good to have it on our list. You know? It's better not too much on a list than too little.
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: Right.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: So Mary, did you think about it?
[Mary A. Morrissey (Member)]: I was just going to say that's important to discuss it so we have a thought process going forward. Yep. No matter if it goes too quick.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Perhaps we could talk about the Windsor prisoner. In all seriousness, you were thinking before Brian or No, was just
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: trying to think of different topics.
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: Yes. I
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: mean, is there anything else that's pressing that people wanna talk? I mean, pretty good.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: Well, what was the big thing that we're getting at? Oh, the forensic thing. Right?
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Yeah.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: I just wanna make a note of it, but I know that we're
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: That's already on the thing, but yes, put it on our list.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: Forensic facility discussion. That's gonna go to judiciary.
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: So it's gonna be a little bit of time before. So Yes.
[Conor Casey (Member)]: I I think we mentioned it before, but just bringing in CoreCivic if we could to
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: touch the
[Conor Casey (Member)]: myriad of issues that they touch.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Yeah. Just basically get an update on what it's like down there, how they operate.
[Conor Casey (Member)]: Yeah. I mean, like every bill we've done, like telecommunication, the scrum is free, you know.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Yeah. How it interacts intersects with them. Yeah. Is that what you I still want to go down there. I mean, we were supposed to go last year and it just seemed like it was impossible to get three people to go. I'll go with him.
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: Just like he would.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: I don't want to be all the same people. From
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: where were you going?
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: To Mississippi. Like, if you and I went in, was Shawn, for example, or something, you know, but if it's two of us from the same spot in the same party, it doesn't make sense to go.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: No. I don't consider I consider going.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: I was just throwing that out as an an idea. It didn't matter who three it is. It's just think I it should be three people with different perspectives and
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: Let's talk after. Yeah.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: All right. And then the visits that we wanna do just to throw, keep that alive. Southern state.
[Brian Minier (Member)]: So since
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: Correctional facility, right?
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: Women's person.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: I mean, we just there.
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: Oh, no. Yeah. But we're
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: going to St. Albans, right?
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: We're going to St. Albans.
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: I meant to say St. Albans. Okay. We've done the.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: And we already have listed, but might as well put it since we're doing the trips is the dams, or the Waterbury Dam. So, Kevin, is this
[Kevin Winter (Member)]: tomatoes thrown at me. I'm still interested in understanding the pros and cons of eliminating earned time. Hold on. That's different.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: That's different.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: That's than we're on, but we'll skip for you.
[Kevin Winter (Member)]: When we're in the correctional facilities, we probably could get a little insight from those who are involved. But when I
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: do know, do know that Chris Pritchard's person is coming to visit us and which which one was Chris's bill? It was last Second one? 2. Yeah. Yeah. Well, his was second look. Right? Yeah. Which one is it? It's 252 right there. Call. Okay. So that's 252. Let me just write that down. So she's she's gonna come up and see us. Oh, that's different than our No, no, I'm sorry.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: No, it's not. 252 is prohibiting her in time. Okay. It's part of it. It's not the whole thing.
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: Might not prioritize this list because it is getting pretty Well,
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: they'll prioritize it when they figure out how I phone
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: mean, we could write everything that's on the board up there.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Oh, yeah. To Kevin's point, and I think I don't know that anybody else wants to beat this to death either. But to your point, when we go, we're gonna be limited on what we can talk to. If somebody's a union worker, you're not gonna be able to
[Conor Casey (Member)]: say, hey, how
[Kevin Winter (Member)]: do you feel about?
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: And, you know, we you're dealing grocery store, you might be able to say something about the job, because we have to watch
[Brian Minier (Member)]: how we do things. Unless
[Kevin Winter (Member)]: it's a union
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Right, rep, for Conor? What's that? I said, if you're dealing with labor and somebody's in a union, you can't ask them too many questions about their job and how they feel about certain policies. You stick to the union boss basically Yeah,
[Conor Casey (Member)]: you're right. There's a policy about how you talk to legislators, they have to stay within the bounds of that. But you
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: can talk to
[Conor Casey (Member)]: them, like you're saying, after work, if they're talking to you as an individual, not on behalf of the department, then you can talk to them.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Yeah, just wanted to point that out to people. I mean,
[Kevin Winter (Member)]: you know, it's I'm suggesting we can ask someone to come in and get testimony. Oh yeah, that's Plenty of people who I'm sure would love to see it happen. So we can find people who wanna talk both sides of way.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: Yeah. So we get two fifty two and and the general idea of our time.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: I also because Gina is not here, I am also writing as a visit the Berry Historical Society. Yep. Because she did wanna get us over there. Absolutely. So I just wrote it's not just
[Troy Headrick (Ranking Member)]: to Yeah.
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: No. That's an easy.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: That's no.
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: That's an easy.
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: Yeah. You know, if it fits into the schedule.
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: And, yeah, that's that's I think that's a pretty good list to start with. Is anybody I
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: think that
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: will That's good with me. Yeah.
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: Got a wide I
[James Gregoire (Vice Chair)]: know the boss said and everybody kind of wants to be out by noon for Good Friday. So unless there's anything else, let's wrap it up
[Brian Minier (Member)]: and
[Kevin Winter (Member)]: go
[Joseph "Joe" Luneau (Member)]: off live. Yep.