WESTMINSTER-Under Gov. Phil Scott, the Vermont Department of Corrections (DOC) operates with shocking disregard for federally guaranteed civil rights, systematically violating Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
In my role as a prison educator, I noticed management failures became glaringly obvious in July 2022 when then-Commissioner Nicholas Deml abandoned the traditional eight-hour workday. The resulting forced overtime and 12-hour shifts destabilized a system where the rights of neurodivergent people were already being discarded.
This is most apparent in the DOC's risk intervention services and its clinical services model. While promotional materials claim to use "evidence-based principles" for rehabilitation, the programming actually boils down to photocopied self-reflection exercises.
The DOC uses these mostly arbitrary metrics to decide who qualifies for early release, parole, housing, and employment - effectively adding years to sentences for individuals with divergent neurology.
Incarcerated individuals with dyslexia, ADHD, and autism are routinely denied accommodations. Hyperactive inmates, withheld from prescribed medications, are expelled from educational programming for restlessness, while those on the autism spectrum are penalized for their social pragmatics.
In one instance, a dyslexic man who could not read the forms requested ADA accommodations. Because he refused to start without them, providers documented him as "refusing court-mandated programming," adding two years to his sentence.
When individuals struggle, the DOC issues corrective action plans (CAPs) to remove them from programming. In managing the 504 process, I documented that 60% of individuals on CAPs had a history of special education. Out of that group, only 12% even had accommodations noted in their files, and few ever received them.
After I brought this to the prison's attention, the ADA and 504 processes were handed to an administrator with no special education background who actively purges records. In one case, after a neurodivergent individual was thrown out of programming twice, special educators wrote a 504 plan to explain his behavior. An administrator deleted the plan from the system entirely.
By ignoring federal civil rights laws, Gov. Phil Scott ensures neurodivergent Vermonters will max out their sentences and get dropped at the bottom of the driveway without the support that risk intervention services otherwise provides its graduates.
Vermont deserves leadership that demands basic human dignity and upholds the law.
Ben Mitchell
Westminster
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