House Appropriations committee backs $3.1M fix for Correctional Industries Fund and adds intent language on inmate wages, programs

The Vermont House Appropriations Committee on Jan. 3 recommended that the House Appropriations Committee (BAA) include $3.1 million to eliminate a deficit in the Vermont Correctional Industries Fund and transmitted a package of nonbinding intent language asking the Department of Corrections (DOC) to review wages and program design for offender work programs.

Committee members told colleagues the vote was driven by a fund shortfall discovered at the end of the last fiscal cycle and by concerns that the fund’s remaining balance must be made solvent so similar deficits do not recur. The committee also reaffirmed earlier agreement to support a $1,000,000 appropriation for an offender management system and to accept the governor’s recommendation to transfer certain lease and IT charges from the Agency of Digital Services to DOC for its IT system.

The adopted intent language asks DOC to submit a plan (with a December 15 milestone referenced in committee discussion), to provide timely reporting of financial and operational activities for facility work programs, and to evaluate whether wages and incentives paid to incarcerated workers should change. Committee members discussed current pay rates that start at $0.25 per hour and rise to $1.25 per hour with a 10¢-per-hour bonus or incentive that can bring a worker’s effective rate to $1.35 per hour in some cases. Members said wages are relevant because earnings can be used by incarcerated people to save for reentry, send money to family, pay commissary, or support programming.

Members asked DOC to examine the scope of programs, how many people can participate, and whether positions should rotate to allow more inmates to access training. The committee added language requesting a comprehensive evaluation of skill transferability and workforce alignment "in consultation with the Department of Labor." That addition was discussed and accepted in committee as a way to ensure training leads to recognized labor-market skills.

Committee members also inserted a reporting requirement to notify the General Assembly when deficits are first discovered and to describe corrective actions taken "in real time," so the committee and assembly can track remedial steps as they occur. Members said DOC staff, including Commissioner Deml and Haley Summers, reviewed and agreed to the final wording before the committee transmitted the language.

The committee took a voice vote in favor of recommending that the House Appropriations Committee include the $3.1 million correction and the accompanying intent language in the Budget Adjustment Act. Committee members said the appropriation would be covered from general fund surplus/waterfall dollars identified at the close of prior fiscal years and that the $3.1 million fills the remaining deficit after a prior $1.9 million waterfall allocation in FY22 did not fully resolve the fund shortfall.

Committee members noted this intent language is nonbinding: it expresses legislative expectations and directions for oversight but does not itself create enforceable requirements. Members discussed that more prescriptive legislation could follow and that fuller, cross-agency work (for example with Department of Labor or ACCD) might be needed for longer-term program redesign.

The committee directed Kevin and Sean to submit the recommendation and the language to the committee’s liaison, Trevor, who will present it to the House Appropriations process for inclusion in the BAA.