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DOC commissioner: H.550 largely mirrors department policy; no known assaults in Vermont facilities
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Summary
At a Senate Institutions hearing on H.550, Commissioner John Murad said he is unaware of assaults by transgender women in Vermont facilities, described existing DOC policies and safety carve-outs, and warned that codifying older PREA language could reduce the department's operational flexibility. The committee did not vote.
Commissioner John Murad told the Vermont Senate Institutions Committee on April 30 that he has "no knowledge of any such occurrences in our Vermont facilities" when asked about testimony from a women's group asserting that housing transgender women who retain male genitalia could reduce safety for women in prisons.
Murad, who identified himself as commissioner of the Vermont Department of Corrections, said many of the safety protections in H.550 are already reflected in DOC policy. "There are numerous carve outs around safety in H.550 and in our existing policy," he said, adding that someone whose offenses, size or violence make them unsafe for a women's facility would not be placed there "irrespective of that person's identity." The committee did not take a vote on the bill at the hearing.
The bill directs alignment with federal PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act) standards as of a specified date. Murad told the panel that PREA and the federal standards guide DOC practice: "The PREA standards are ... standards that the Vermont Department of Correction follows, that Vermont's Department of Correction believes in, and the Vermont Department of Corrections often seeks to exceed." He cautioned that embedding an older snapshot of federal standards in statute could reduce flexibility if federal rules or technical approaches change over time.
Legislative Council attorney Hillary Tederaines said the committee can compare versions of the federal regulations online and confirmed that the cited PREA subsection has not changed since 01/01/2024. She explained that House Corrections added explicit subpart listings (reported in committee discussion as 44 subdivisions) to make the statutory reference clearer to nonlawyers, rather than relying on an abstract cross-reference to the Code of Federal Regulations.
Committee members pressed practical questions about camera placement, data storage and access to recorded monitoring, and the department's process for staff discipline and grievances. Murad said DOC policy requires staff to use an incarcerated person's identified name and pronouns and to intervene in harassment; he said a single good-faith misgendering error would typically not be upheld as a grievance, while repeated or purposeful animus could lead to progressive discipline up to formal reprimands.
Several senators questioned whether codifying policy into law is necessary because, in Murad's view, the department already follows the practices H.550 would require. Murad acknowledged that statute is inherently less flexible than policy and that codification could remove some of the discretion he currently exercises, but he said he had not seen examples that would make routine errors terminable.
The committee scheduled a separate confirmation-style interview to review Commissioner Murad's background and experience and asked him to provide a resume; members said they would set a time for that session. The hearing proceeded without a final vote on H.550.
What happens next: The committee will weigh testimony, legal drafting questions about which PREA language to pin to statute, and operational clarifications before deciding whether to advance H.550. No vote occurred at the April 30 meeting.
