Two housing units at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans have been closed, and prisoners there have been transferred to another facility.
Exactly why the units closed and what it means depends on who you ask. Although precise staffing levels are in dispute between corrections workers and administrators, both agree staffing is an issue.
Steve Howard, executive director of the Vermont State Employees’ Association, the union representing corrections officers, raised the closing of the housing units during testimony Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Government Operations.
Staffing at that facility and across the correctional system is at a crisis level, he said.
“This is the No. 1 crisis facing the department of corrections,” Howard said. “We’re really at a serious point as we speak.”
He said union members had reported to him that 18 staff at the St. Albans facility stopped working there over the past week. He added that he was also told Springfield prison staffing levels were at about 50%.
James Baker, interim corrections commissioner, also testified Wednesday before the committee.
“Part of the reason why we collapsed units (in St. Albans), yes, we’re having a staffing issue at that facility,” he said. “Part of the reason we collapsed the units was to balance the state out where we have stronger staffing levels.”
Following the meeting, Baker said that 18 people did not leave the facility in the past week. He said within the past seven days only one person has left.
“There are currently 12 vacancies at that facility,” he said. “To say there is 18 people that walked out is not factually true.”
As for the Springfield prison, Baker said, “There are bigger challenges at the Springfield facility for sure.” He didn’t immediately have the numbers available late Wednesday afternoon but said he didn’t believe that it was at 50%.
Baker said there are a total of 45 correctional officer vacancies across the corrections system, which include 21 recruits who are slated to start training at the corrections academy next week. Howard said it’s not appropriate to count the new recruits because there is no guarantee they will get through training.
Both Howard and Baker talked during the meeting about the need to improve retention of employees, citing that as a major factor in the staff shortages.
Howard said employees are getting exhausted with forced overtime shifts and feel a lack of support from management. Pay was also an issue, he said. He suggested a retention bonus to help keep staff from leaving.
“I do agree with Steve. We have a real challenge on staff. These are difficult jobs,” Baker said. “But I also got to tell you the leadership team I have around has difficult jobs.”
He praised the work of that team managing the corrections system through the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Do you really think I could get people to come work in corrections if they listen to this, and the leadership of the organization is being trashed,” Baker asked. “I doubt very much somebody is going to go work in an organization like that.”
Committee members discussed various actions they could take to help address the staffing shortage in corrections, from calling for a study to convening a task force.
They also talked about the possibility of directing the administration to open negotiations with the union over retention bonuses.
Vince Illuzzi, a lobbyist with the Vermont State Employees’ Association, urged the committee to take more immediate steps than including it in study language.
“The staffing numbers are critical,” he said. ”The employees I spoke with said they are getting daily, almost daily, retirement announcements, people leaving for a number of reasons.”
Baker, speaking after the hearing, acknowledged that staffing is an issue but talked about the importance of having accurate numbers.
“VSEA is trying to create a situation where they’re getting leverage to bargain for their employees,” he said, calling the numbers the union provided during the meeting as “manufactured.”
He said the department is taking steps to improve employee retention as well as recruitment of new officers. Baker added that the Covid-19 pandemic over the past year has hindered the training of new recruits.
Howard, speaking after the meeting, objected to the notion that the union was manufacturing numbers. He said he is relying on figures provided to him from union members on the ground.
“It would be not unprecedented, in the history of the Department of Corrections, for the commissioner not to have accurate data from the field,” Howard said. “This is what our members are telling us.
“Whether his numbers are right or our numbers are right is really irrelevant. The point is there is a staffing crisis in the department of corrections and they’re closing units.”
Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham and committee chair, said during Wednesday’s meeting she planned to pen a letter to the administration expressing the panel’s concern around staffing and the need to see improvements.
She said she would draft a letter and share it with committee members before sending it. The committee agreed to take the issue back up Thursday.
Rep. Sara Coffey, D-Guilford, speaking Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Government Operations, said it was important to remember the driving force that led to the bill: sexual misconduct allegations at the state’s only women’s prison.
The panel was taking testimony Wednesday on a corrections reform bill, H.435. The legislation is aimed at making reforms in the corrections system.
The bill follows an investigation into the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington, the state’s only prison for women.
The probe came after revelations surfaced in December 2019, in a series of articles published by Seven Days, alleging sexual misconduct and harassment, employee drug use and retaliation against those raising complaints at the South Burlington prison.
Shortly after the publication of the articles, the state hired a Vermont law firm, Downs Rachlin Martin, to conduct an independent review of the prison. The review concluded in December 2020 that reports of chronic sexual abuse at the facility were largely accurate.
The legislation takes up some of the recommendations made by the law firm to address problems at the prison.
One provision of the bill would outlaw sexual contact between Department of Corrections employees and those under the department’s supervision, including those on furlough and parole.
Current 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 Correction Monitoring Commission, aimed at improving transparency and anti-retaliation policies.
