Vermont Department of Corrections outlines FY2027 budget, flags staffing, women’s facility crowding and rising health costs
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Summary
The Vermont Department of Corrections presented a $244.1 million FY2027 budget to the Health Appropriations Committee, highlighting staff vacancies (about 13% overall; roughly 20% for correctional officers), a crowded women’s facility (172 inmates vs. ~177 capacity), a $44 million annualized health contract, and rollout of a Medicaid reentry (1115) waiver.
The Vermont Department of Corrections on Jan. 30 presented its proposed FY2027 budget to the Health Appropriations Committee, saying staffing shortages, a growing detainee population and steep health-care costs are pressuring operations and driving several near-term priorities.
"I am the interim commissioner for the Vermont Department of Corrections," John Murad told the committee, outlining the department’s mission, the structure of Vermont’s unified corrections system and recent population trends. He said the statewide custody population rose from pandemic-era lows of roughly 1,100 to about 1,650 today, with approximately 150 people housed out of state.
Murad and finance staff said the department’s overall vacancy rate is just under 13 percent, while front-line correctional officer I and II positions carry a higher vacancy—"probably around 20 percent," Murad said—driven in part by retention problems and heavy overtime.
"We desperately need…a new [women’s] facility," Murad said, describing crowding at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility (CRCF) in South Burlington. He told lawmakers CRCF housed 172 women as of the morning of the hearing, near a stated absolute capacity of about 177, and said the facility’s general-population number is well above ideal levels ("about 140% of gen pop"), creating reliance on temporary floor beds inserted into housing units during construction and other periods.
Finance director Marlene Petit reviewed budget drivers and line items. Petit said the total FY2027 budget as presented is $244,149,293. Major upward pressures include salary and benefit increases, higher internal service fund allocations, an increase in the department’s contract with Wellpath for health services and higher costs for out-of-state beds. Committee members and staff discussed an annualized health contract figure for FY2027 of about $44,000,000.
Petit described a number of program and fund adjustments across the budget, noting the correctional services appropriation is the largest share and listing changes to general, federal and internal-service funding lines. She identified several federal grants that end in 2026, including a Community College of Vermont award (ending 8/30/26) and a Second Chance Act grant (ending 9/30/26, balance ~$490,689), and said the grants are structured so they do not create ongoing base-budget obligations.
The department also described health and reentry work underway: about 95 percent of people in custody receive some medication from the department and more than half receive medically assisted treatment (MAT/MOUD). Staff outlined the Vermont Medicaid Reentry Project, approved under a 1115 Medicaid waiver in 2024 and implemented Jan. 1, 2026, which restarts Medicaid roughly 90 days before release to improve care management and transitions back to the community.
Committee members requested additional data, including the workforce turnover rate (a committee member later cited a workforce report indicating a 25 percent turnover rate for 2025) and precise bed counts and cost breakdowns for out-of-state placements. Murad and finance staff offered to provide those details to the committee.
The presentation closed with the department asking for legislative support to accelerate site selection and an RFP process for a new women’s facility; staff also emphasized recruitment, retention and modernization efforts such as body cameras for supervisory staff and replacement of aging operational-management systems. The committee paused for a short break and said staff would be contacted for follow-up questions.
Sources: Presentation and oral testimony by John Murad (interim commissioner), Marlene Petit (executive director of finance) and department staff to the Health Appropriations Committee on Jan. 30, 2026.
