Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Corrections Staffing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Union warns Vermont corrections vacancies doubled in 2024; offers bargaining and policy steps to ease crisis
Summary
Steve Howard of the Vermont State Employees Association told the oversight committee DOC correctional officer vacancies rose from 40 to 81 between March and November 2024 and urged the governor and commissioner to bargain pay/benefits; he also proposed childcare, manager deployments to front lines, retirement alignment and weekly oversight hearings as remedies.
The Vermont State Employees Association told the Joint Legislative Justice Oversight Committee that staffing shortages in the Department of Corrections have deepened and are creating unsafe working conditions at multiple facilities.
"The total number of vacancies, among COs has doubled from 40 to 81, during that time," Steve Howard, VSEA executive director, said, citing Department of Human Resources data from March to November 2024. Howard said Southern State Correctional Facility had a roughly 41% vacancy rate and that the women's facility nearly doubled from 16% to 29%. He described front-line staff being forced into repeated 16‑hour shifts, reported incidents of staff falling asleep on commutes and said the workload is unsustainable.
Howard urged the legislature to press the governor and DOC commissioner to bargain a durable pay and benefits package to stabilize staffing. He said VSEA is not asking the legislature to engage in collective bargaining but asked legislators to use their influence to get the administration to negotiate. He recommended short‑term and statutory remedies, including:
- Incentives and double‑time pay on days off to reduce mandatory overtime and encourage voluntary coverage; - Expanding childcare access as a recruitment and retention incentive for shift workers; - Rotations out of the most demanding posts and temporary deployment of central‑office managers to facilities to relieve front‑line staff; and - Legislative changes to retirement classifications (aligning Group G with Group C) and targeted statutory exemptions to the anti‑spiking rules to avoid penalizing staff for mandatory overtime when calculating pensions.
Howard also asked the committee to hold frequent oversight testimony until the administration provides a clear plan and suggested review of exit interviews to understand why employees leave.
What’s next: Committee members noted the recommendations and recorded that VSEA will seek legislative sponsors to reintroduce related bills; the committee encouraged follow-up hearings and additional data collection to vet proposals.
