A seven-year veteran of the CIA who formerly worked on Capitol Hill is set to become Vermont’s next corrections commissioner.
Nicholas Deml has been appointed to the post by Gov. Phil Scott, according to a Friday afternoon announcement from Mike Smith, secretary of the state Agency of Human Services.
The governor in a press release called Deml an “accomplished” and “experienced” administrator, adviser and attorney.
Deml has worked in “various leadership and operational capacities” at the Central Intelligence Agency since 2014, according to the release.
From 2011 to 2014, Deml worked in the U.S. Senate as a national security and foreign policy aide to the office of the assistant majority leaders and as an aide on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights.
Deml has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Southern Illinois University and his law degree from Marquette University Law School.
His first day is Nov. 1.
Deml could not be reached late Friday afternoon for comment.
“I leverage my experience in the U.S. Senate to find common ‘currencies’ that lead to collaborative solutions,” Deml says in a statement on his Linkedin page. “I listen to and value stakeholder opinions, and consistently pursue inclusive approaches to every challenge.”
James Baker has served as interim corrections commissioner since January 2020. Initially, Baker was expected to serve only 90 days. When Covid-19 hit, he stayed on to help guide the department through the pandemic.
Baker had replaced Michael Touchette in the commissioner’s post. Touchette resigned in December 2019 shortly after Seven Days published an article detailing allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment and retaliation at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, Vermont’s only women’s prison.
Deml takes over the department during a period of debate around Vermont’s corrections facilities, including over the appropriate number of prisons and beds and where they should be located. Baker also has been working to create a “cultural change” with the department to professionalize its ranks.
Corrections officials have also been discussing the need to replace the deteriorating women’s prison in South Burlington.
Plus, the department faces chronic staffing shortages.
Steve Howard, executive director of the Vermont State Employees’ Association, the union representing corrections workers, said late Friday afternoon that he does not know Deml and looks forward to learning more about him.
However, Howard noted that Deml did not appear to have any experience in the corrections field.
“I think it would probably be helpful to have corrections experience,” Howard said. “My thought is: Let’s reserve judgment and see how he does.”
Howard said he would like the new commissioner to listen to the frontline workers, increase staffing and be bold enough to make structural changes in the department’s central office.
Vermont Public Defender Matthew Valerio, whose department oversees the state’s Prisoners’ Rights Office, said late Friday afternoon that he, too, does not know Deml. He also remarked on Deml’s lack of experience in the corrections field.
“Sometimes it takes somebody to look at something from the outside who hasn’t had experience and look at things in a common sense way that people who are in the weeds too much don’t see,” Valerio said.
