Mayor distrusts Corrections Dept. after conflicting accounts
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By STEPHANIE M. PETERS Herald Staff - Published: January 8, 2009
The number of child sex offenders and furloughed inmates who call Rutland home are topics that lately are never too far removed from the discussions of the city's political leaders.
For Mayor Christopher Louras, however, it has reached the point where he has said he's beginning to grow wary of the information he receives from the Department of Corrections.
On Monday, he aired that concern before the Board of Aldermen, pointing specifically to what he described as conflicting information from two employees of Corrections in a recent Rutland Herald article regarding the possibility that the state may increase the number of furlough beds in the city.
He also said he had been told by city police that a man who was charged with committing a crime in Bennington, and who he believed had been living in Bennington, was sent to Rutland to live — which would conflict with Corrections' assurance to Louras that only people from Rutland County are sent to live in the county if they are released from prison under the department's supervision.
"We may have a problem with the credibility of the Department of Corrections," he said. These issues "give me pause for concern."
Louras said he plans to meet with officials from Corrections later this month to further discuss the transitional housing program, which already exists with three beds in Rutland and, according to a Corrections Web site dedicated to proposals for the program, could be expanded to up to 10 beds for men based on the county's need assessment. That kind of increase would boost the number of furloughees in the community and would contradict another guarantee Louras said has been made by Corrections, he said.
The Board of Aldermen on Monday took action to stay abreast of any developments on the mayor's anticipated conversation with Corrections, referring the issue to the Public Safety Committee.
Alderwoman Sharon Davis, who raised the issue, said she was also concerned that "most of our police are now doing the work of probation and parole." She asked Louras, admittedly tongue-in-cheek, if support for the police department would increase with the number of furlough beds in the city. In Bennington last week, the aldermen's counterparts voted 6 to 1 to oppose BROC's proposal to Corrections for $103,000 in funding for the program, although the board's approval of the project is not necessary. In Rutland, the Rutland County Housing Coalition has historically administered this program.
According to Michael O'Malley, district manager of Rutland Probation and Parole, the transitional housing program helps reintegrate into the community prisoners who are up for furlough and will otherwise sit in jail until they serve out their maximum sentences, and are "dumped out the back door." Inmates who serve their full sentences are free to live in any community they choose on release. Still, the proposal put out by the state is being handled on the state level, not by his office, O'Malley said.
"Until (an organization) finally filed one, I had no idea that a local organization had made a proposal to do that," he said. "This is designed to make the community safer. We're not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes."
If a proposal is ultimately accepted, "there would be conversations with the community, like there were down in Bennington, but as far as I know there hasn't been anything but proposals," O'Malley said.
Louras' other gripe with Corrections may not be as strong. A review of the imprisonment and release of Gregory Penn, the individual Louras named during the aldermen's meeting as having been "shipped" to live in Rutland, shows that Penn was not under the control of Corrections when he settled in Rutland sometime during the summer.
Penn, who has a lengthy criminal history, was released from prison in March after serving out the length of his sentence on a 2002 conviction for sexual "crimes against children," according to Bennington Police Detective Lawrence Cole. He served much of that sentence out of state, but, according to O'Malley, as Penn's release date neared he was sent to Springfield before being transported to Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility about 20 hours before his release.
At the time of his release, Penn was free to live wherever he chose, and was given a bus ticket to Bennington, where he had resided from about 1998 until his arrest in 2001, Cole said Wednesday. He was, however, required to register with the Vermont Sex Offender Registry and did, Cole said. About a month after Penn's release, Cole said he was informed by the registry that Penn had relocated to Rutland.
"He brought himself to Rutland on his own, and that's where we found him," said Cole, who arrested Penn again on Dec. 9 on four counts of aggravated sexual assault of a victim younger than the age of 10, offenses that allegedly took place in Bennington about a decade ago. Penn is currently being held as a Bennington County detainee at Marble Valley, according to O'Malley.
Both O'Malley and Cole said they are unsure why the St. Croix native chose to settle in either Bennington or Rutland, but O'Malley said Corrections had "no authority" to tell him where to live before his most recent arrest.
Told Wednesday of the circumstances of Penn's arrival in Rutland, Louras said he only knew what he had been told by Detective Sgt. Kevin Stevens of the Rutland Police Department. Stevens could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Contact Stephanie M. Peters at stephanie.peters@rutlandherald.com.
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