With Vermont’s prisons reaching capacities they haven’t hit since the onset of Covid-19, Vermont Department of Corrections officials are grappling with how to handle the influx of people incarcerated.

The state now incarcerates more women than it has beds at its lone women’s prison. In some facilities, people are sleeping on temporary plastic “sled beds” on cell floors. The growing population means prison officials are now considering sending more people to a private prison in Mississippi.

In just two years, Vermont’s prison population has risen by almost 300, from 1,366 in September 2023 to more than 1,650 today. To be sure, the level is below the roughly 1,750 seen in 2019 and a peak of more than 2,200 in the late 2000s. State data shows the detainee population — people jailed while aw

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