VSEA calls Vermont corrections staffing a 'humanitarian crisis,' warns of safety and service impacts

Steve Howard, executive director of the Vermont State Employees Association, told the Senate Committee on Institutions in Room 304 that the state’s Department of Corrections is experiencing a staffing shortfall he described as a “humanitarian crisis,” with safety and program impacts across facilities.

Howard said the average turnover for the CO‑1 entry-level correctional officer position over the past three fiscal years is 49 percent and that vacancies rose from about 40 in March 2023 to 81 in November 2023. He said Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield saw its vacancy rate grow from about 12 percent to 41 percent in that period. “We’re now in a position where we’re getting calls from our members who say they aren’t getting bathroom breaks. They’re having to change their uniforms because nobody’s coming to give them a chance to use the restroom,” Howard said. “More frightening...we receive calls from our members who have fallen asleep driving home, driven off the road, because they’re working 16 hour shift after 16 hour shift.”

The nut of Howard’s testimony was that the shortage among security staff has forced managers to collapse posts, extend shifts and reassign staff so the facilities can remain open. He said those operational changes have reduced access to education, recreation and other inmate services, and have sent probation and parole staff to provide hospital and facility coverage. “Right now, the folks who are incarcerated are often locked in their cells...all of the rehabilitative and…