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.

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