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 locating a replacement site.

Committee members pressed Murad on the rise in the female population. One senator cited a roughly 44% increase and a headcount near 156; Murad said the number is higher, currently "hovering in the 170s" with a peak near 184 last summer, and attributed much of the growth to an increase in detainees — people held pre-conviction awaiting hearings or unable to meet bail.

Murad detailed short-term measures taken at CRCF to manage overcrowding, including adding beds and, during ADA retrofits, temporarily using gym space to house people. He said the department has limited intake from some federal partners when capacity thresholds are exceeded but cannot restrict county or court-ordered commitments. "That person must be given a bed," Murad said of individuals arrested and held locally.

On medium-term options, Murad said the department may need to reassign women to other state facilities or swap populations between facilities if counts continue to rise, acknowledging such moves carry ramifications for male populations and are not preferred. The long-term solution, he said, is a new facility constructed on a new site — an effort that requires locating suitable land and proceeding through planning and construction.

Murad also described treatment and reentry programming inside facilities. He said more than half of people in custody are receiving medication for opioid use disorder and that mental-health needs are prevalent. He cited education and reentry examples, including an associate-degree graduation at CRCF through the Community College of Vermont (CCV) and early-stage "kids apart" family-visitation programming at the Mayo facility.

Staffing emerged as a separate pressure point: Murad said the department’s historical staffing deficit peaked near 30–35% and has improved to roughly 12% overall, though some facilities still face larger gaps (about 15% or higher for frontline custody classifications). He described hiring successes but said retention is the harder problem because overtime demands and reopened facility wings increase burnout. "We are hiring quite well. It's the retention part that's a challenge for us right now," Murad said.

Murad also addressed out-of-state placements, saying Vermont now has about 150 people in out-of-state beds by contract (up from roughly 120 at the start of the year) and that the department recently authorized a large-scale out-of-state transport for the first time in several years because of capacity pressures. He noted the state historically used higher out-of-state placements but has far fewer people out of state today than in earlier years.

Senators asked technical questions about the data: Murad said the department’s headcount data are typically prepared by staff and transmitted in the early morning (around 6:00–6:30 a.m.), which generally reflects counts before most court actions that day. He also invited committee site visits to facilities and offered to notify members of graduations and other programming events so they could observe operations in person.

The committee recessed without a recorded vote; members scheduled follow-up visits and asked the department to provide additional data and clarifications on headcount methodology, recidivism definitions and program metrics.

Next steps: the department will continue to work with the committee on finding a site for CRCF replacement, provide requested data on population counts and recidivism, and coordinate further facility visits and program briefings.