U.S. Marshals won't move state inmates
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By Wilson Ring Associated Press - Published: December 24, 2008
MONTPELIER — The U.S. Marshals Service is ending for now a program that allows states to move prisoners on its system of airplanes and buses, officials said.
The decision could mean that state law enforcement agencies will have to pay more to extradite prisoners from other parts of the country.
Vermont agencies were told Monday they would no longer have access to the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System run by the Marshals Service because of budget constraints and a backup of federal prisoners who need to be moved.
"The Marshals have the best transportation system in the United States when it comes to prisoner transports," said Chittenden County Sheriff Kevin McLaughlin. "The security is the best."
McLaughlin said the change could end up costing him more to bring prisoners back to Vermont from distant points in the country because he would have to pay round trip airplane tickets for two deputies as well as a one-way ticket for the prisoner.
"Just the air fare alone, it's usually three to four to five times what the marshals can charge," he said.
Fred Wilson, a spokesman for the National Sheriffs' Association, said Tuesday he hadn't yet assessed what the change could mean to the nation's sheriffs.
"It could have a large impact," Wilson said.
Dorothy Zinnert, the chief of scheduling for the Marshals' transportation system, said there have been no flights since Dec. 15 and there is a limited flying schedule for January.
"We receive numerous requests for non-fed moves throughout the U.S. every day," Zinnert said.
She said the cut is to remain in effect until March 31, but officials in Vermont were told not to expect the service to be made available to them again until at least May.
Vermont chief deputy U.S. Marshal, William Gerke Jr., said his office only transports one or two state prisoners a year.
"Over the years, the numbers that we have done has saved (the state) quite a bit of money," Gerke said. "It will come back at some point."
It used to be that states were charged a set fee for moving inmates, but within the last few years the Marshals began charging a fee based on distance. The minimum price is $700, Zinnert said.
The Marshals Service describes the transportation system as the only government-operated, regularly-scheduled passenger airline in the nation. It is used to transport federal prisoners and illegal immigrants and, until recently, state inmates on a space-available basis.
The system uses a fleet of airplanes, buses and vans; it flies an estimated 350,000 people a year.
Zinnert said that last year the Marshals Service moved 3,507 state prisoners, about 1 percent of the total.
McLaughlin said how often he uses the system varies from year to year. Sometimes he'll use it a half dozen times, other years he won't use it at all.
New Hampshire's U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier said 20 Granite State prisoners were moved by the Marshals Service last year.
John Clark, chief deputy U.S. marshal in Portland, Maine, said there were between five and 10 state extraditions per year handled through the system.
Clark said that some members of Congress have acknowledged the costs states face in extraditing offenders. He said last session, two separate bills were introduced to help local prosecutors pay to return suspects for trial.
The Vermont Department of Corrections does not use the Marshals' system to move inmates between the state and prisons in Kentucky and elsewhere.
McLaughlin said that when, for example, a person wanted in Vermont is arrested in California, his office will fill out a Marshals Service form. The prisoner is then given a seat on a plane on a space available basis and flown to an airport in New England. (For security reasons he wouldn't say where). The Marshals Service would then use ground transportation to bring that person back to Vermont.
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