Board members of Vermont’s state employees union said they have long battled to support racial justice and denounce alleged abuse in the Department of Corrections — but have faced opposition from board leadership and top staff.
The divide has prompted multiple board members of the Vermont State Employees’ Association to resign, including Brett Pierce, who stepped down last month.
The Department of Public Safety employee said he spent years trying to convince the union to condemn alleged abuse by staff at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility and the now-shuttered Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center. He said the union’s executive director, Steve Howard, kept the board from critiquing Corrections, and that the board’s president, Aimee Towne, would scream at board members who strayed from the party line.
“It just felt like I was wasting my time,” Pierce said. “I felt like there wasn't much I was accomplishing other than making my own life worse.”
The state employees union represents about 6,000 members.
In 2019, Seven Days first reported on allegations of sexual abuse and drug use at Chittenden Regional, the state’s only prison for women. A law firm contracting with the state later corroborated the report. After Woodside was closed, a lawsuit filed last year alleged systemic abuse against juvenile residents by staff.
According to Pierce, Howard “would continuously come out and, like, deny or downplay that stuff.”
Pierce said a small but vocal minority of...
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