Lawmakers hear competing views on bill 176 to reinstate DOC work‑crew sentences; DOC warns of cost, limited results

A legislative committee heard testimony Feb. 27 on bill 176, which would direct the Vermont Department of Corrections to reinstate a work‑crew sentencing program that was closed in 2023. Nick Demore, commissioner of corrections, told the panel that DOC does not support restarting the old model because of cost, staffing and poor outcomes.

Demore said the prior work‑crew model was structured as a contract‑style labor program that assigned people serving short sentences to crews supervised by DOC staff and contracted to municipalities or other public entities. "Since 2015, [the program] never achieved that mark," Demore said. "Since 2015, this program cost the state 11 and a half million dollars. By the end of the program, each participant cost us about $62,000." He added that, when DOC closed the program, it estimated it would need roughly $3,600,000 to run it for one more year and that restarting the program today would require hiring about 15 positions and restoring equipment the agency no longer has.

Demore described operational problems the department encountered before closure: a 70% decline in work‑crew sentences from 2016 to 2023, a population shift toward people with co‑occurring substance‑use and behavioral health needs, and frequent failure to appear. "Two‑thirds of the individuals who were being sentenced to work crew never showed up," he said; when participants did not appear, DOC staff typically sought an arrest warrant and the participant was often incarcerated. At the time the program closed, Demore said, DOC…