Legislation stemming from a scandal in Vermont’s only prison for women would outlaw sexual contact between Department of Corrections employees and those under the department’s supervision.
But other changes to the state’s corrections system will have to wait.
Rep. Sara Coffey, D-Guilford, told colleagues Wednesday that the House Corrections and Institutions Committee, of which she serves as vice chair, had crafted the legislation to reform the state’s prison system.
“Our latest work,” Coffey said, “is a bill that seeks to address issues of sexual misconduct in our correctional system to ensure a safe environment for our state employees and for those who are under the custody and care of the Department of Corrections.”
The House on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to that bill, H.435. A final House vote is scheduled for Thursday, after which the legislation would move to the Senate for consideration.
The bill follows an investigation by a Vermont law firm hired by the state to conduct an independent review of the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility.
The firm, Downs Rachlin Martin, concluded in December 2020 that reports of chronic sexual abuse at the facility were “largely accurate.” The revelations surfaced a year earlier, in December 2019, in a series of articles published by Seven Days alleging sexual misconduct, employee drug use and retaliation at the South Burlington prison.
“Our committee drew heavily on DRM’s recommendations,” Coffey said of the legislation on the virtual House floor late Wednesday afternoon.
H.435 would make it a crime for corrections staff to have sexual contact with anyone on furlough, probation or parole. Currently, state law bans sexual exploitation of incarcerated individuals and prohibits employees from having sexual contact with those they directly supervise.
The bill would also:
— Create a Corrections Monitoring Commission that would improve transparency, promote anti-retaliation policies and provide advice to the corrections commissioner regarding the reporting of sexual misconduct;
— Establish an internal Corrections Investigative Unit to probe deaths, contraband, escapes and allegations of sexual misconduct.
Other changes have been relegated to studies, including:
— Recommendations from the Criminal Justice Council and corrections department to the Joint Legislative Justice Oversight Committee for minimum training requirements for corrections officers and a process for decertifying corrections officers. The report would also include the fiscal impacts of the recommendations.
— A study of the use of polygraph examinations for job applicants and drug testing for employees.
Rep. John Killacky, D-South Burlington, has met several times with incarcerated individuals housed at the women’s prison, which is located in his district.
“It’s a very dire situation,” he told his fellow lawmakers. “The women feel unheard, they feel unsafe, and they feel without hope.”
The legislation, he said, provides some hope while also working toward a “cultural shift” within the corrections department.
