Senate committee presses short-term fixes as search continues for new women's correctional facility site

Chair opened the April 15 Senate Institutions briefing by saying the panel had invited Commissioner Manoli of the Department of Buildings and General Services and Commissioner Murad of the Department of Corrections to update members on the women's re-entry and correctional facility project and the state's immediate capacity concerns.

Commissioner Manoli said the state currently has just under $15 million appropriated for the new women's facility from prior capital bills and that no additional capital request was included while the team pursued a permitted site in Essex. "The community did not support the placement of the women's correctional facility" in Essex, she said, and the rezoning request was denied, which required staff to reopen the site search.

Commissioner Murad described the site search and RFP process. The RFP requested at least 20-acre sites with municipal water, power and internet located within defined corridors near I-89 and along Route 7; brokers returned a single submission that included two properties, and an evaluation to determine whether those parcels meet the minimum criteria is still under way. "Windsor is state-owned and permitted, but it is too far for many of our staff and service providers," Murad said, noting staffing and programmatic continuity around the existing South Burlington ecosystem is an operational priority.

Committee members pressed officials for immediate remedies to severe overcrowding and deferred maintenance at the current facility. A lawmaker warned the committee that the count had risen from about 156 to roughly 185 people in custody and characterized conditions as "borderline a human rights situation," urging the administration to act. Murad said the building has deferred major maintenance because planning for a replacement was expected; he told the committee some interim measures are feasible but will require permitting and careful code work. "We're using the gymnasium because of overflow," he said, adding that parts of the infirmary or other spaces might be repurposed to gain a handful of beds but that such conversions carry different permitting and code requirements.

On funding, commissioners and lawmakers debated whether major maintenance funds could be used for the interim work or whether a limited portion of the $15 million allocated for the new facility should be made available. Commissioner Manoli said major maintenance has paid for urgent repairs (for example, recent drain repairs) but that more structural or permitting-linked renovations would likely require a budget adjustment or explicit legislative allowance. Committee members discussed language to permit a capped transfer for short-term infrastructure improvements; figures discussed in the hearing ranged from $750,000 to $1.5 million as potential examples for a temporary allocation, with the requirement that any use be reported back to the committee and not impair the overall new-facility planning.

Officials stressed the timeline and uncertainty for building a new facility. Murad estimated a planning and permitting horizon of three to five years or longer and described a wide "cone of uncertainty" for population projections: CRCF currently has an atypical mix of about 50% detained and 50% sentenced people, compared with a more typical pattern of 25%–30% detained. That shift and court backlog effects make short-term demand uncertain, he said, although officials will pursue multiple interim relief options, including talks with Maine about out-of-state placements as one temporary measure.

The committee asked for a concrete, actionable plan before mid-May that includes cost estimates, a schedule for proposed interim repairs or reconfigurations, and confirmation whether one of the two RFP properties fits program needs. "We need to take steps to address this before the end of the session," the Chair said. Commissioners said they would return with more-specific proposals and cost estimates and that they will seek legislative flexibility if necessary to implement short-term safety and health improvements while preserving the state's ability to proceed with the new facility project.

The hearing closed with committee members agreeing to review proposed statutory language for a capped, reportable use of the existing $15 million appropriation and to receive the requested plan back from commissioners in mid-May.