It’s been a minute since I wrote about the disastrous tenure of Nicholas Deml as corrections commissioner. To recap, he was on the job for the better part of five years and during that time, there was an almost complete turnover in the top ranks of the Department of Corrections. Most crucially, just about anyone with relevant experience left the department and were replaced with people who had no discernible background in corrections or law enforcement.

And now I have a bunch of numbers that underscore Deml’s failure to bring the long-awaited culture change to DOC. They come from the state of Vermont’s 2025 Employee Engagement Survey, available online for the entire state government and for every individual agency or department.

The results show rampant disaffection within the ranks at DOC. The numbers for Corrections employees are, across the board, substantially worse than they are for state government as a whole. If Deml had any positive impact on the department, it sure as hell doesn’t show up in this survey.

So let’s run some numbers!

There are a series of questions about “Organizational Culture.” State government got 68% positive responses for workplace culture. while DOC trailed badly at 43.4%. Only 21% of DOC employees agreed with the statement “In my department, things are well planned and organized.” And only 28% agreed that “The culture in my department is a healthy one.”

Corrections also scores poorly on “Operational Excellence,” meaning that an agency or department “achiev[es] the highest level of efficiency and effectiveness in operations.” State government as a whole: 56.5%. Corrections: 31.4%.

There’s a measure of “Psychological Safety,” which isn’t quite what you might think. It’s about whether employees “feel safe to share their ideas, ask questions, and take risks without fear of negative consequences.” Across state government, 66% see their workplace positively, while only 40% of DOC employees agree. Scary response: Less than one-fourth of all DOC employees agreed with the statement, “No one in my department would deliberately act in a way that undermines my efforts.” Seems like there’s a lot of undermining going on. Most DOC staffers feel that way, at least.

There’s a nifty little thing called “Employee Net Promoter Score” (eNPS), which basically asks the question, “How likely are you to recommend your agency or department as a place to work?” For the entire state government, 39% would be likely to recommend and 25% are unlikely to. Within DOC, only 21% would recommend while 50% would not.

The survey takes a deeper dive into that metric, devising an “Employee Net Promoter Score.” State government earns a score of 14, which is in the “Very Good” range. Corrections, meanwhile, checks in with a negative 29 score, which “warrant[s] immediate steps to improve employee engagement.”

As you might expect from that result, DOC scores poorly on “Attrition Risk.” Across state government, 18% of all workers are “likely to look for a job in the next year,” while 59% are unlikely to. In DOC, 26% of workers are likely to seek new employment while 48% are unlikely to.

The survey offered a space for comments, and the ones for DOC are uniformly negative. Employees cited a shortage of advancement opportunities and rated pay and benefits as “not competitive.” Many commenters expressed dissatisfaction with DOC leadership, “citing issues such as favoritism, lack of accountability, and poor communication.” Many were concerned about staffing levels “insufficient to meet the demands of the job, causing stress and burnout.”

And finally, the workplace environment was described as “toxic, with issues such as favoritism, lack of support, and a ‘good ol’ boys’ network.”

If there were any areas where DOC did better than state government as a whole, I didn’t find them. Granted, Corrections has been a trouble spot for some time. But if Nicholas Deml did anything to improve the situation, it doesn’t show up in the state’s own figures on employee engagement.