Vermont’s first new attorney general since 1997, TJ Dovovan, was sworn into office last week.
VPR spoke with Donovan about his plans and priorities now that he’s in office.
The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity. Listen to the complete interview above.
VPR: One central point of your campaign was to end Vermont's use of private out-of-state prisons. What specific policies are you going to pursue now that you are in office to achieve that goal?
Donovan: “There's been a development in terms of the private prisons. The private prison company has informed the State of Vermont that they will no longer seek to contract with the State of Vermont to incarcerate Vermonters in the prison in Michigan, and I think that contract runs until June.
“That's a good development, and so what I am advocating for is that before we solicit any other bids from a private corporation to incarcerate Vermonters — and it's about 250 people, it's not a lot of folks — let's be creative here in Vermont.
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