After years of complaints from prison staff and incarcerated people about sweltering summer conditions, Vermont has approved its largest investment in cooling state correctional facilities in recent years.
Lawmakers agreed to spend nearly $10.5 million to install prison cooling systems, which appears to be more money than the state put toward the project in the last four years combined, according to state data.
The jump in state investment comes two years after prison staff members filed a workplace safety complaint, alleging they experienced heat stroke-like symptoms.
Most prisons in Vermont have no permanent air conditioning systems throughout, which officials agree leads both staff and incarcerated people to suffer.
“During the summer when we get a heat wave, we get dozens of grievances,” according to Defender General Matt Valerio, whose office is tasked with investigating unresolved complaints from incarcerated people.
Grievances are formal complaints that incarcerated people can file with the Vermont Department of Corrections.
The department has tried to mitigate the heat by providing fans and ice to staff and incarcerated people, according to Haley Sommer, a spokesperson for the department. And while Valerio commends the makeshift efforts, he agrees the state needs a permanent fix to get prison temperatures under control.
The money lawmakers designated for heating, ventilation and air conditioning, or HVAC, will go toward permanent cooling systems as well as short-term remedies. The money is approved for the state’s upcoming fiscal year, which starts next month.
The state plans to use the newly available funds to complete HVAC systems at Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield, Vt., and Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport, Vt., according to Cole Barney, a spokesperson for the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services, which handles construction projects on state property.
The state only has building-wide HVAC systems in its prisons in Rutland and South Burlington, according to Sommer. After projects in Newport and Springfield are completed, two Vermont prisons — those in St. Johnsbury, Vt., and St. Albans, Vt., — will still lack permanent air conditioning.
Over the years, the state has spent nearly $8.5 million in state bonds, which typically fund the lion’s share of its construction projects, on prison HVAC upgrades across the last four fiscal years, according to data presented to lawmakers this year.
So far, the state has installed air conditioning in the infirmary at the Springfield prison and created cooling rooms for staff, according to Sommer. The state has also installed temporary air conditioning in several rooms, including the dining area and the gym, at the St. Johnsbury prison, she added.
With the new state money, the buildings department expects to have permanent air conditioning completed by fall 2026 at the Springfield prison and by fall 2027 at the Newport prison.
“When correctional facilities were built, there was less of a need for air conditioning because the summers were not as hot,” Sommer said.
And the summer heat is exacerbated by the constraints inherent in a prison, where the windows don’t open and people may spend long hours in a single room, according to Sommer.
Large construction projects can also be particularly challenging to carry out in prisons, Sommer said, because if construction is underway in a living unit, the department has to relocate the people it usually holds there.
“The impact of not having air conditioning in correctional facilities is felt acutely, both by correctional staff that work there and by incarcerated people that live there,” Sommer said.
The mutual suffering due to heat can create tension between staff and incarcerated people, Valerio said.
“If it’s hot, it’s crowded, people get short-tempered,” he said. It becomes a health and safety problem, Valerio added.
Valerio said he thinks the Corrections Department has done its best trying to manage the heat in prisons. He knows staff provides fans and extra water — and anything helps, he said.
The investment in permanent air conditioning could reduce tensions, he said.
“It’s a good idea.”
This story was republished with permission from VtDigger, which offers its reporting at no cost to local news organizations through its Community News Sharing Project. To learn more, visit vtdigger.org/community-news-sharing-project.