Vermont Senate committee hears corrections update as CRCF overcrowding and staffing strain operations

Interim Commissioner John Murad told the Senate Institutions committee on Jan. 6 that the Vermont Department of Corrections is facing its largest custody counts since before the pandemic, growing detainee populations and continued staffing shortfalls that together strain facility operations and programming.

Murad, who said he was appointed interim commissioner in August, described the department as Vermont’s largest agency by headcount and emphasized that custody must be paired with care. "We have more of those than we have in a very long time since before the pandemic," Murad said, noting the unified state system holds both pre-conviction detainees and sentenced people in six state facilities and 12 district offices.

The commissioner flagged the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility (CRCF) — the state’s only women’s facility — as the most pressing facility concern. He said CRCF is "one of our older facilities" in the worst condition of the state’s facilities and that the department is authorized and has funding to replace it but lacks a site. "I would love it if in 2026 we had shovels in the ground," Murad said, urging the committee’s help…