Charlotte Oliver’s recent piece in VTDigger regarding her visit with Vermont legislators to Southern State Correctional Facility was cheerful and upbeat. One could get the mistaken impression that the prison’s “colorful cafe” and “hallways with shiny floors … like a school” suggest an entirely benign place.
Vermont prisons are warehouses for convicted lawbreakers and detainees, many waiting years for final charges and trial. Prisons embody huge compromises between the goals of keeping staff and residents safe and efforts to educate and socialize residents, eventually returning them to their communities and families. Oliver’s article seemed to be a snapshot of a so-called typical day in a Vermont prison, but it barely scratches the surface of a very complex situation. The negative effects of staffing shortages weren’t even mentioned. Correctional officers work 16-hour shifts to fill schedule vacancies. The stress on correctional officers, support staff and their families results in high rates of people quitting. New hires are a stopgap until they, too, tire of the onerous hours and low morale, which triggers more vacancies, and so on.
The Department of Corrections budget continues to be a huge burden on Vermont taxpayers. Constant prison lockdowns and shutdowns resulting from staff shortages affect Community High School of Vermont classes and other classes led by volunteers, like Alcoholics Anonymous and church groups, as well as volunteer-led educational groups. Outside recreation and walking in the exercise yard, which are essential to good physical and mental health, are frequent casualties of the lockdown issue. The same applies to access to the gym, as it is seriously underutilized.
Shutdowns disrupt the timely distribution of medicines to diabetics and medicines to safely wean residents from opiate addiction. Medications needed for mental health stability are distressingly out of stock, and off-brand versions are prescribed at dosages far less than those originally recommended by regular providers. That the current Vermont-selected health maintenance organization for the DOC may have contributed to the failing health and untimely deaths of SSCF residents is no secret. Testimony to these views has been given in VTDigger and other news sources.
Vermont Just Justice is an all-volunteer organization. Help us continue to support Vermont’s incarcerated people and change our state’s criminal legal system.
This piece first appeared in VTDigger, May 28, 2026
Charlotte Oliver’s recent piece in VTDigger regarding her visit with Vermont legislators to Southern State Correctional Facility was cheerful and upbeat. One could get the mistaken impression that the prison’s “colorful cafe” and “hallways with shiny floors … like a school” suggest an entirely benign place.
Vermont prisons are warehouses for convicted lawbreakers and detainees, many waiting years for final charges and trial. Prisons embody huge compromises between the goals of keeping staff and residents safe and efforts to educate and socialize residents, eventually returning them to their communities and families. Oliver’s article seemed to be a snapshot of a so-called typical day in a Vermont prison, but it barely scratches the surface of a very complex situation. The negative effects of staffing shortages weren’t even mentioned. Correctional officers work 16-hour shifts to fill schedule vacancies. The stress on correctional officers, support staff and their families results in high rates of people quitting. New hires are a stopgap until they, too, tire of the onerous hours and low morale, which triggers more vacancies, and so on.
The Department of Corrections budget continues to be a huge burden on Vermont taxpayers. Constant prison lockdowns and shutdowns resulting from staff shortages affect Community High School of Vermont classes and other classes led by volunteers, like Alcoholics Anonymous and church groups, as well as volunteer-led educational groups. Outside recreation and walking in the exercise yard, which are essential to good physical and mental health, are frequent casualties of the lockdown issue. The same applies to access to the gym, as it is seriously underutilized.
Shutdowns disrupt the timely distribution of medicines to diabetics and medicines to safely wean residents from opiate addiction. Medications needed for mental health stability are distressingly out of stock, and off-brand versions are prescribed at dosages far less than those originally recommended by regular providers. That the current Vermont-selected health maintenance organization for the DOC may have contributed to the failing health and untimely deaths of SSCF residents is no secret. Testimony to these views has been given in VTDigger and other news sources.
Vermont Just Justice is an all-volunteer organization. Help us continue to support Vermont’s incarcerated people and change our state’s criminal legal system.