Employees’ union files workforce safety complaint over excessive heat at Springfield prison

The Vermont State Employees’ Association has filed a workplace safety complaint after four staff members at the Springfield prison experienced heat stroke-like symptoms during the warm start to this summer.

Some of the workers at Southern State Correctional Facility passed out and went to the hospital, according to Steve Howard, the union’s executive director, noting the union first filed a complaint after a late May heatwave but heard from more members affected by June’s heat as well.

“When workers start getting sick from the working conditions they’re subjected to, it’s really a crisis,” he said.

The Legislature allocated $5 million this past session for climate control in Vermont’s prisons. Currently, only two of the state’s six prisons have air conditioning throughout their complexes, according to the Vermont Department of Corrections, and Springfield isn’t one of them. Previous estimates indicate it will take about $20 million to make system-wide improvements.

During the week of June 16, temperatures across the state pushed into the mid-to-upper 90s, dangerous levels for those who could not cool off. Vermont saw highs in the upper 80s in late May, which caused one correctional officer to lose vision, later waking up in the hospital without memory of what transpired, according to the union’s complaint.

Correctional officers work in the concrete buildings while wearing “very heavy” uniforms, according to Howard, adding to the risk.

“It’s an urgent issue,” the union leader said.

Vermont’s Prisoners’ Rights Office receives heat complaints from incarcerated people every year, according to Annie Manhardt, the office’s supervising attorney.

“I’m very glad to know VSEA filed a complaint about it because I think this is one of the areas where staff wellbeing and the wellbeing of incarcerated people can really be advanced through a shared solution,” she said. “It’s going to continue to get worse as the climate changes.”

People in prison do have small fans, Manhardt said, but many of the things people tend to do to cool down — take cold showers, open windows at night — aren’t accessible to them, at least not on-demand.

The Springfield prison is at the top of the list for HVAC upgrades, according to Isaac Dayno, chief of staff for the Vermont Department of Corrections, in large part because it houses some of the state’s most “at risk” incarcerated people, like the elderly, people with mental health issues, and those who need access to the state’s largest prison infirmary.

While waiting for the upgrades, Dayno said the department is working on heat mitigation strategies, like misters, fans, shades, lighter uniforms, cooling towels and access to cold beverages.

“Obviously, it takes an enormous toll on the people that live there and work there,” Dayno said of the heat. “These facilities were built in a completely different philosophical framework. They were built to warehouse people, they were not built with rehabilitation and healing and transformation in mind.”

Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield, who is chair of the House Corrections and Institutions Committee, said prison staff have brought concerns around heat to her committee’s attention for years, and the recent $5 million allocation would begin to address the issue.

“We knew it was going to take time to bring all our facilities up with air conditioning,” she said, so the state planned to outfit some specific spaces in the Springfield prison with air conditioning before outfitting the entire complex.

Heat can make the prisons a “very unhealthy” working environment, Emmons acknowledged, with humidity lodging itself inside the concrete buildings.

“It affects everybody in the building. Everyone. Your boots on the ground, your volunteers that come in, and the residents that live there,” she said. “Whatever we can do to make it palatable, we’re going to do that.”

A request for proposals for the design of climate control systems for the state’s prisons will be posted in the next couple of weeks, according to Kate Eberle, a spokesperson for the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services. The design process will begin on or before Sept. 1, she said in an email, with bidding on construction scheduled to occur by next summer and completion of the project at Southern State expected by the end of March 2027.

Contractors are required to complete “temporary cooling” spaces on an accelerated schedule, Eberle said.

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