I put the title in the form of a question, but based on what I’ve learned in recent days, there really isn’t much doubt about it: Nicholas Deml’s tenure as corrections commissioner was a complete disaster, and he leaves the department in a perilously weakened position going forward.

To recap, Deml was an outlier from the very beginning. The Scott administration normally promotes from within, and the Department of Corrections usually places a high value on seniority. Deml’s three predecessors*, Nicholas Michael Touchette, Lisa Menard, and Andrew Pallito, had each served many years in DOC. (Menard and Touchette began their corrections careers as prison guards and worked their respective ways to the top of the chain.)

*Not counting James Baker, who served as interim commish between Touchette and Deml. Baker didn’t have corrections experience, but he did bring a lengthy background in law enforcement leadership.

And then Deml was hired in November 2021 from a post with the Central Intelligence Agency. There was hope that as an outsider, he would instill a long-overdue culture change to the department. Despite his lack of corrections background, he must have had some great ideas, right?

Well, his four-and-a-half year tenure was marked by the sadly customary kinds of missteps and scandals. And then he quit in July, in a Friday afternoon newsdump, with less than three weeks’ notice and without any sort of immediate job prospects aside from a vague nod toward launching “an advisory practice to continue the work I care about most.” (More on that later.)

At the time, I wrote about the strangeness of his departure — and the complete lack of curiosity about it from our Pillars of the Fourth Estate. Knowing what I know now, I see nothing strange at all about his sudden bugout, and I’m even more perplexed at our media’s quick dismissal of the story. There is evidence aplenty that Deml’s tenure was disastrous. You don’t have to dig very far to uncover it, and you don’t have to work very hard to find former department officials willing to spill the beans.

But before I get to said bean-spilling, let’s take a look at the documentary record that shows how badly Deml screwed up the department.

Without too much effort, I found three listings of top DOC personnel: A central administration “Contact Us” list from October 2021 (courtesy of the Internet Archive); an organizational chart (downloadable here) dated January 2024; and the current iteration of the DOC central administration “Contact Us” list. The three lists are not identical in which offices they cover, but they’re close enough to reveal a disturbingly high turnover rate at the top echelons of DOC. There’s almost no one left in top departmental circles who was there in October 2021. Many offices have changed hands at least twice in the last four-plus years.

And there’s almost no one left in top management with significant experience in corrections or law enforcement. Deml’s hires are distinguished by their lack of relevant experience. And now they’re running the whole show under the temporary stewardship of former Burlington police chief Jon Murad, who’s got no background in operating anything as large, sprawling, or difficult as a state prison system.

So who’s there alongside Murad? Deputy Commissioner Kristin Calver has been with DOC since 2004. Otherwise, not much. Out of that 2021 contact list, which includes 20 officials, only four were still with the department at last check. (And I’ve heard that one of the four has just resigned but it isn’t public yet. So make that three out of 20.)

Otherwise, the department’s central office is staffed by Deml hires. And out of all the people brought in by Deml, only one (Director of Health & Wellness Aviva Tevah) had any background in corrections or law enforcement. It’s possible that I missed one or two, but the point is valid nonetheless: The Department of Corrections’ top echelons are full of people hired by Nicholas Deml from outside the department — and from outside the entire field.

It’s almost as if Deml wanted to be surrounded by people with no experience.

Which brings me to two former Corrections officials who were willing to speak with me anonymously. I will say that I find them to be highly credible. They both have extensive experience in the public sector. No blemishes on their records — not until they found themselves serving under Nicholas Deml. They used words like “narcissist,” “sociopath,” and “ruthless” to describe him. Not to mention “sexist” and “misogynistic.”

“He pushed people out and brought in his own,” one ex-official said. Many of the pushed-out were older women; many of the brought-in were young women, usually in their 20s.

In these former officials’ view, Deml spent his time as commissioner focused more on his own future than on managing DOC. “His travel budget was unlike anything in the history of the department,” one said. “[One year,] he had a travel budget of $400,000 and he spent $1.2 million. He was always traveling, rarely around.”

Which brings me to that “advisory practice” Deml talked of starting. In actual fact, he launched his consultancy almost a year and a half before his resignation. The Secretary of State’s business registry lists a February 2024 registration for “Everly, Bly & Co, LLC.” The address of record is a single-family home in Hinesburg, presumably Deml’s own residence. The email of record is “nicholas.deml@everlybly.com.”

Deml included Everly, Bly in his January 2025 financial disclosure filed with the state ethics commission. And I found a bio from a September speaking engagement for the IJIS Institute that refers to him as “the Managing Director of the boutique advisory and consulting firm Everly Bly & Co. He established the firm after serving four years as the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Corrections…”

More like two years, actually. But I doubt he wanted to reveal the fact that he was planning his post-Corrections future almost before he settled into the office.

These two former officials are speaking out (in part) because they fear that Deml will make a comeback. And if you look at his background, you’ll see there are reasons for that fear. Deml is the son-in-law of Chuck Ross, who was agriculture secretary under Peter Shumlin and, before that, a top staffer for Sen. Pat Leahy. He’s as well connected as one can be, and so is Deml by marriage. I can’t prove he got the Corrections job because of his family ties, but the line practically draws itself.

Deml’s resumé also includes a stint as an aide to Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin. And two of his Corrections hires also have strong Democratic ties. Isaac Dayno is DOC’s Executive Director for Policy & Strategic Initiatives, a title that did not exist before Deml; Dayno was a staffer on Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 campaign for president and he managed Mike Pieciak’s 2022 campaign for state treasurer. And Haley Sommer, departmental spokesperson and lobbyist, managed Charity Clark’s 2022 campaign for attorney general.

Given all that, and given the mutual back-scratching nature of Vermont politics, it’s not hard to see a potential Deml return under a future Democratic governor. Like, for example, Mike Pieciak or Charity Clark, arguably the top two candidates for governor in the next election not featuring Phil Scott.

As for Deml’s departure, I’ve been told but cannot confirm that his treatment of one subordinate resulted in an official investigation. If true, that would give him reason to leave before things got too hot. It would also provide motive to the Scott administration to, shall we say, encourage his exit.

I’m about done, but I must underscore our media’s apparent lack of interest in Deml’s troubled tenure at DOC. The two officials spoke to me after reaching out to other media outlets without attracting any interest. I find that deeply concerning. There are people wiling to talk, and enough of them to create a firm foundation for a story even if they remain anonymous. Plus, their accounts are underscored in the public record of dramatic turnover in the Corrections Department. I can’t say why this story hasn’t gone public before. It does not speak well of our major media outlets.