ACLU says Mississippi prison transfer a mistake

The ACLU is calling on state lawmakers to stop sending Vermont inmates to out-of-state prisons.

Two-hundred inmates are currently at Camp Hill in Pennsylvania, where there have been reports of abuse, neglect and inmate deaths.

Now, the Vermont ACLU says they're headed to Mississippi. The ACLU says the way to reduce the reliance on out-of-state prisons is to reduce the number of prisoners.

"There is no immediate solution. Vermont has taken years to get itself into this situation but whether it's Camp Hill or whether it's Tallahatchie, none of these facilities are appropriate for housing Vermont inmates," said John Lyall of the ACLU of Vermont.

Lyall says out-of-state incarceration doesn't just affect the prisoners involved but also their families, many of whom live in Vermont.