The House for the second time has approved legislation stemming from a scandal in the only women’s prison in Vermont, though the version of the one approved Tuesday differed a bit from the bill passed earlier this session.
One of the main components of the bill, H.435, has not changed: the measure that would outlaw sexual contact between state Department of Corrections employees and those under the department’s supervision.
However, a study called for in the earlier version of the bill regarding the use of polygraph examinations for job applicants and drug testing for employees is no longer part of the legislation.
The study to be conducted by the Joint Justice Legislative Oversight Committee, according to Rep. Sara Coffey, D-Guilford, who presented the legislation on the House floor Tuesday, had been removed when the Senate passed its version of the bill.
“The Senate members of the Joint Justice Oversight Committee weighed in on this piece of the bill,” Coffey told her fellow House members, “and they felt that they were already looking at a very full workload during the off session, and could not take the study on.”
She added that the Senate heard testimony from the Vermont State Employees’ Association and the state Department of Corrections who said they were already starting to discuss the two issues called for in the study.
“We know that these are important issues to look at,” Coffey said, “and felt confident that DOC and VSEA will be working on this and so agreed to concur that the study was not needed at this present time.”
Steve Howard, VSEA executive director, said after the House vote Tuesday that the union opposed both the polygraphing of new applicants and drug testing of employees.
“This was an attempt by management to scapegoat our members because they don’t want to talk about the staffing crisis,” he said. “They are trying to scapegoat the frontline members. We refused to allow our members to be scapegoated.”
He said the union did testify in support of a drug testing standard that required the employer to have “probable cause” before requiring a test.
“They were asking for a standard, random drug testing, that not even the state police subject themselves to,” Howard said.
The House unanimously approved the legislation Tuesday by a voice vote over Zoom with no debate.
The measure now goes back to the Senate to consider amendments made by the House, including a change in the number of members of a new commission the bill would establish.
The bill calls for the creation of a Corrections Monitoring Commission aimed at promoting anti-retaliation policies and to provide advice to the corrections commissioner regarding the reporting of sexual misconduct.
The legislation comes after an investigation by a Vermont law firm into the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, the state’s only women’s prison.
The firm, Downs Rachlin and Martin was hired by the state to conduct an investigation following a series of articles published by Seven Days alleging sexual harassment and misconduct, retaliation and employee drug use at the prison.
The firm’s investigation, concluded in December 2020, found the reports of chronic sexual abuse at the facility largely accurate.
The bill approved Tuesday by the House would make it a crime for a corrections employee to have sexual contact with a person under the department’s supervision, including on parole, furlough or probation.
The current law bans employees from having sexual contact with those they directly supervise.
The bill also establishes and internal Corrections Investigative Unit to conduct probes, including into allegations of violations of the Prison Rape Elimination Act and major events that occur in the department, such as the death of a person in custody or an escape from a facility.
