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[Conor Casey (Member)]: Good
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: afternoon, folks. This is House Gretchen's and Institutions Committee. It's Wednesday, May 27. And we have a House bill, that two ninety four, that was taken up on the Senate floor today, and there was an amendment to the bill. And we have the amendment before us. What it is, the bill deals with the telecommunications, and this is the evaluation that DOC would be doing on providing telecommunications, a different method of providing telecommunications to folks who are incarcerated, and as well as working with staff on this too. So there was the stakeholders that DOC had to reach out to. There was the Public Utilities Commission, Joint Fiscal Office, one or more nonprofit providers of corrections telecommunication services, for civic representatives of families of incarcerated Vermonters, community based reentry service providers, justice reform organizations, Person Research and Innovation Network, and any other stakeholders identified by the Commission of Corrections as necessary for the evaluation. So what the amendment does, it takes out CoreCivic as one of those stakeholders. And the reason we put in CoreCivic was because we do have folks who are incarcerated and held in Mississippi, Vermont folks, and that facility is operated by CoreCivic. So we wanted to make sure that our folks who are being held in the Mississippi facility would have the same access to be included in this compensation. So Conor, it's your bill. You sat in a little bit on the side.
[Conor Casey (Member)]: Yeah, I heard the interrogation this morning. And I get where Senator Bajafsky is coming from. Think it's a good place. I don't think a for profit provider should necessarily have a seat at the table when it comes to overall corrections policy. The reason we put it in the bill as a stakeholder was just to make sure the out of state population was in the conversation when we get the feasibility study back on that. Because we maybe even more than the ones in state, we want to account for the 150 people who are so far removed from their families. But because it is a study, right? And because the department's heard our concerns, I do have faith that they would come back after looking at the out of state population. So I think it does make sense to concur or risk the bill, Diane. So
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: you are moving that we concur with the Senate proposal.
[Conor Casey (Member)]: I am in danger.
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: Any further discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Aye. Those opposed. So on a straw vote of nine zero two, we move to concur with a central proposal of amendment. The goal is to take this up when we go back on the floor this afternoon. There'll be a motion to suspend rules pending entry on notice calendar. And then we'll pick it up and hopefully, Farn, you won't have any
[Conor Casey (Member)]: I will. I know I will. It'll probably be Gina. Gina.
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: Do mean Do you
[Conor Casey (Member)]: ever hate the presenter? Gina will really like this one, I think.
[Alice M. Emmons (Chair)]: Gina's autograph. Okay, we're on the line. Okay, so that's why we went live. I think this is our last meeting that we'll meet the year, I hope. I see it. Yeah. I know. And and we will sign off for now. So thank you.