Staffing woes prompt state to shift workers from Rutland jail to Springfield prison

By Alan J. Keays/VTDigger

Some housing units will be closed at the Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland so workers there can be shifted to the Springfield prison to cover staffing shortages there. 

“I wouldn’t say it’s dire but I would say it’s concerning,” Al Cormier, chief of operations for the Vermont Department of Corrections, said Friday of the staffing shortage. “The overtime rates across all of our facilities is pretty high right now and what that does is, it leads to staff burnout. 

“Staff are having to work 12- to 16-hour shifts,” he said, “and they’re not getting to be able to spend time with their families. When they do have a day off, they are exhausted. It’s really a quality of life issue, trying to get these staff their lives back.”  

The Vermont State Employees’ Association, the union representing corrections workers, has been sounding the alarm about a staffing “crisis” within the department.

“We have a facility in Springfield that is so badly staffed that they are in absolute crisis,” Steve Howard, the union’s executive director, said Friday. “Our members need relief there because they are exhausted, and to do it we’re going to disrupt the lives of people at Marble Valley.”

The Rutland jail has about 50 correctional officers; about 10 will be shifted to Springfield, according to Cormier.

With the staff reduction at the Rutland jail, about 2½ housing units will be closed there, cutting the prisoners held there in half, to about 60 people, Cormier said. The prisoners being moved out of Rutland will be moved to other prison facilities across the state’s corrections system.

The additional corrections workers are needed at the 356-bed Springfield prison because of a staff shortage of staff there, Cormier said.

“Marble Valley has had the lowest population and the lowest overtime rates in the system,” Cormier said, “whereas, South State Correctional Facility has had the highest vacancies in correctional officers and the most overtime. We’re trying to alleviate some of the pressure on the staff in that facility.” 

Cormier said the department is working with the Vermont State Employees’ Association, and the shift of workers will be done in compliance with the union contract. 

“We’ve got some volunteers who say they’ll go now,” he said. “I hope to see it finalized within the next two weeks, hopefully not lasting longer than September.” 

There are now 24 job vacancies for correctional officers at the Springfield prison, Cormier said. But there are actually 36, counting staff members who are out because of military activations, family and medical leave, disciplinary actions, and workers’ compensation.

“That’s close to a third of the correctional officers there,” Cormier said. 

“Right now we have 91 vacancies across the state in correctional officer positions,” he said, including 30 new jobs that were budgeted in January 2020 but have never been filled. 

“The reality is it’s around 61 positions that are vacant,” Cormier said. 

The department has been drawing more job applications because of increased recruiting efforts, including on social media.

“We have 41 applicants in the pool right now for correctional jobs,” Cormier said. “We’ve seen more applications in the last four days than we’ve seen in the last month.”

Cormier said 22 people are already slated to attend training at the Vermont Correctional Academy in July, and “we’re shooting for 30.”

If the department can do the same numbers for the September training session at the academy, “we’ll be in pretty good shape,” he said. 

Closing units at Springfield instead of Rutland is not workable, according to Cormier, because of the services at the Springfield facility, including housing older prisoners and offering mental health care.

“There really is no way to disperse that specialized population across the other facilities,” he said.

Howard, the union’s executive director, said Friday that, under the union contract, the corrections department is able to shift the workers as long as proper notice is provided.

“Under the contract, they have to look for volunteers first,” he said, and the shift is not easy, since Springfield is well over an hour’s drive away from Rutland. “We suggested that they provide an incentive more than just a hotel room and mileage.”

The union has called on the corrections department to shift workers from its central office in Waterbury to the Springfield prison for the summer.

“So that they can actually see what some of their policies are like in the real world; they can get a taste of what the real world is like outside the comforts of Waterbury,” he said. “We’ve asked them to reach out to retirees and try to incentivize them to come back.” 

Howard said the union’s corrections unit is scheduled to meet July 2 with Gov. Phil Scott to discuss staffing. 

“We’ve got to solve this problem,” he said.