{"id":1273,"date":"2021-03-24T13:33:36","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T17:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acluvt.org\/news\/case\/hrdc-v-ccs-amicus-brief\/"},"modified":"2021-03-24T13:33:36","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T17:33:36","slug":"hrdc-v-ccs-amicus-brief","status":"publish","type":"case","link":"https:\/\/www.acluvt.org\/cases\/hrdc-v-ccs-amicus-brief\/","title":{"rendered":"HRDC v. CCS (amicus brief)"},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":""},"case_status":[],"court":[],"class_list":["post-1273","case","type-case","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"case_number":"","featured_image":null,"date_updated":"20210324","date_filed":null,"call_to_action":null,"attorney":"","judge":"","pro_bono_firm":"","partner_organizations":"","summary":"A case concerning the availability of records relating to health care for people incarcerated in Vermont's prisons\n","components":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"The ACLU of Vermont is supporting an effort by the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC) to obtain records of legal claims filed against Vermont\u2019s former prison healthcare provider over a period of five years. The question of whether a state contractor can withhold public records involving a core government function \u2013 in this case, the provision of healthcare in Vermont prisons \u2013 is now pending at the Vermont Supreme Court.\n\nThe ACLU of Vermont filed an amicus brief on Monday, March 21, 2021 supporting HRDC\u2019s position that the records at issue are subject to Vermont\u2019s Public Records Act and must be disclosed. The ACLU\u2019s brief is joined by Secretary of State Jim Condos, Auditor Doug Hoffer, the Vermont Prisoners\u2019 Rights Office, and the New England First Amendment Coalition.\n\nVermonters expect their government and its contractors to be accountable. For that to happen, we can\u2019t allow private corporations performing traditional, core government roles to evade our public records laws. Transparency is especially important in this context, given the continuing failures of our prison healthcare system and the resulting harms to incarcerated Vermonters and their families. The state can choose to outsource its work, but its legal obligations do not just disappear.\n\nFrom 2010 to 2015, Correct Care Solutions, a private for-profit company operating as Wellpath, contracted with the State to provide health care for all people incarcerated in Vermont prisons. In return, the State paid Wellpath roughly $94 million. HRDC\u2014a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to advancing the rights of prisoners \u2014 requested copies of settlements of the lawsuits filed against Wellpath. Wellpath refused to disclose those records, prompting this lawsuit.\n\nThe ACLU\u2019s brief notes that Vermont\u2019s Department of Corrections \u201ccontractually delegated to Wellpath a function that the DOC is both constitutionally and statutorily mandated to undertake\u201d and argues that, because it was operating as a \u201cfunctional equivalent\u201d of the government, Wellpath took on the government\u2019s transparency obligations under the state\u2019s public records law.\n\nThe ACLU of Vermont and its partners have litigated this issue before. In a 2010 case, a different medical contractor for DOC voluntarily turned over the records before the court could rule. In a second case, filed in 2013, the trial court ordered Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to disclose the requested records \u2014 but the Vermont Supreme Court has never before ruled on this question.\n\nIn this case, the ACLU of Vermont again urges that the Public Records Act\u2019s purpose of ensuring governmental accountability cannot be achieved if agencies can outsource their core responsibilities \u2013 but not their transparency obligations \u2013 to private entities. More specifically, Vermonters cannot assess whether their $94 million dollars were well spent without being able to see why or how often prisoners alleged inadequate health care by Wellpath."}}],"legal_documents":[{"court":null,"documents":[{"document_options":"document","document":1274,"title":"2021-03-22_secretary_condos_et_al._amicus_brief.pdf","subtitle":"","date_filed":null,"drupal_node_id":"","slug":"","child_documents":null},{"document_options":"document","document":1276,"title":"2021-03-22_brief_of_appellant.pdf","subtitle":"","date_filed":null,"drupal_node_id":"","slug":"","child_documents":null}]}],"plaintiffs":null,"co-counsel":null,"issues":[1369],"related_content_publications":[],"press_releases_related_to_cases":[],"related_news":[],"related_content_cases":[]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>HRDC v. 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