The head of the Vermont Department of Corrections told lawmakers Thursday that he was “shocked at the level of sexualization” among the staff he oversees.
“I’m just going to be candid because that’s what I tend to be,” James Baker, the interim commissioner, said during a video meeting of the Joint Legislative Justice Oversight Committee as he talked about efforts to enhance standards and accountability in the department he took over in January.
“I’m shocked at the level sexualization inside the workplace in corrections – shocked,” he told the panel that includes a mix of House and Senate members.
Baker said since he started in his post eight months ago that six employees have either been dismissed or agreed to resign. “I’m not going to name them. I’m not going into details because I want to respect their privacy,” he said.
“Four out of the six,” Baker added, “was around what I would refer to as acts pertaining to sexualization.”
He said currently three corrections staff members are under criminal investigation for allegations involving sexual activity.
“I’m struggling to try to figure this out,” Baker said. “I’m engaging some of the best minds around the country right now in conversation.”
“Wow,” Rep. Charlies “Butch” Shaw, R-Pittsford and a committee member, said in response to Baker’s comments.
Baker took over as the corrections commissioner early this year after Mike Tocuhette, who had led the department, resigned in December following allegations against prison staff.
Seven Days earlier that month reported on sexual abuse and harassment as well as drug use by guards at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington, the state’s only women’s prison.
In one criminal case involving a corrections staffer brought in June and currently pending, Joshua Ross of Brattleboro, a community corrections officer, was accused of paying for sex with a woman he was supervising.
Baker in the legislative meeting Thursday talked about another employee who was dismissed on the very day of graduating from the Vermont Correctional Academy.
“I won’t get into detail, again, because it’s still pending in internal investigation, but they got involved in soliciting sex from a classmate,” Baker said. “We’ve got to do better than this.”
Baker said every two weeks he attends a meeting with human resources personnel to go over internal affairs cases.
“I kind of start every two weeks out with a little bit of a joke, ‘Can we go through one staffing without talking about sex?” the commissioner said. “And to date that has not happened.”
“I bet you look forward to that happening,” Shaw said of Baker’s hope.
“I appreciate you, that you’re willing to at least to talk about it with everybody and not just try to sweep it under the rug internally,” Shaw told the commissioner. “I’m hoping that’s a start to breaking the old-boy cycle within the facilities.”
Baker talked about the many corrections staff members who perform their jobs “bravely” in sometimes difficult conditions, particularly during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
However, he said, it’s also important to acknowledge when a problem does exist in order to fix it.
“I’m publicly acknowledging it right now,” Baker told the committee.
He talked of efforts underway to increase accountability as well as enhance the hiring process, including background checks and psychological screening. Baker said he has recently established the Office of Professional Standards within the department.
Steve Howard, executive director of the Vermont State Employees Association, the union that represents more than 800 corrections staff, said Thursday that it is the management of the corrections department that has failed to do its job.
“I think the management sets the tone that has created a corrections system that has serious problems,” he said.
Howard talked of the turnover among prison superintendents in recent years who are often then offered a job in the department’s central office without addressing the reasons behind their removal from leading the prisons.
“If he really wants to make a difference in the Department of Corrections, hiring standards are a big thing, we don’t disagree with him on that,” Howard said of Baker. “And he’s got to clear out a lot of the central office, a lot of the managers in that central office.”
“I will say that he has been good about listening to our members,” Howard added of Baker. “I just think that big bold change has come to the central office if the culture of the entire corrections system is going to improve.”
Asked specifically about Baker’s assertion of a shocking level of sexualization in the corrections department workplace, Howard replied, “A lot of what he was referring to was allegations.”
Howard said when it comes to workplace violations, it’s on management to document, investigate, and prove misconduct.
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington and the committee’s chair, said during Thursday’s meeting that while not happy to hear about the problem that exists, he found it “refreshing” that Baker was talking about it publicly.
“It does cast a negative light on other folks who work for the department,” Sears added.
Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield and committee vice chair, echoed comments from Sears regarding Baker’s willingness to acknowledge problems and the need to address them.
She spoke of previous legislative testimony regarding corrections she’s heard in the past.
”It became very clear to us,” she said, ”how things are reported and not reported because of the tension and the fear of being ratted on.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Corrections chief tells lawmakers of shocking ‘level of sexualization’ in workforce.