Vermont prisons agree to improve services for ICE detainees after discrimination complaint

Facing the prospect of a discrimination lawsuit, the Vermont Department of Corrections has agreed to provide federal immigration detainees in its prisons with better access to language interpretation, legal counsel and court hearings.

The Vermont Human Rights Commission announced Tuesday it had reached a settlement with the department, following a discrimination complaint the commission filed in January.

Immigration lawyers previously said the department restricted their ability to meet with federal detainees and that non-English speakers lacked language interpretation in state prisons.

With the settlement, the Corrections Department is resolving the discrimination complaint before it’s brought to civil court, according to Lauri Fisher, general counsel for the department.

Under the agreement, the department is required to ensure that immigration detainees are provided language interpretation services and regular access to immigration lawyers with the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project. The settlement does not include a monetary sum.

“It’s the one time I’d say, ‘I was pleased we got sued,’ because it made us better,” Fisher said in an interview Tuesday.

Federal immigration authorities use Vermont prisons to hold detainees, often more than a dozen at a time. Though detainees can be held in any state prison, they’re most commonly taken to Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington or Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans Town.

The settlement marks a resolution between the Corrections Department and advocates for immigrants’ legal rights, who have been at odds after lawyers with the asylum assistance project alleged earlier this year that the department was impeding their access to detainees.

Their clients also weren’t receiving interpretation services, lawyers alleged in March, leaving immigrants to go without proper medical care or be disciplined without understanding why.

Language interpretation for people who are detained is essential to provide access to services they have a legal right to receive, said Erin Jacobsen, VAAP’s advocacy director.

“And if you can’t do that, then rights might as well just be wishes,” Jacobsen said.

Issues with language and attorney access began, immigration lawyers alleged, after Commissioner Jon Murad took over the department in August 2025.

Murad previously defended his decision to end routine meetings between VAAP attorneys and immigration detainees. He said in March he was enforcing the department’s policies and cutting off practices that shouldn’t have been allowed under his predecessor.

Fisher said Tuesday that the department hasn’t changed its position since March, rather that it’s changing its rules and policies.

Previous policies were limiting, she said. Now the department has taken the opportunity to “grow” by following the recommendations of VAAP and the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, according to Fisher.

“We’re just modifying (department policies) to adapt to modern times, if you will,” Fisher said.

Under the agreement, the department will be required to identify someone’s preferred language when they’re taken into a facility. Then, prison and medical staff will be required to use a mobile interpreter to communicate with people in their preferred language.

If someone’s preferred language isn’t English, the person can’t be disciplined for disobeying an instruction given in English, according to the settlement.

Along with guarantees for language access, the department is directed to provide the asylum assistance project with a daily list of all immigration detainees in state prisons, according to the settlement.

Under the agreement, a group of attorneys with the legal organization are allowed to go into the prisons in South Burlington and St. Albans Town every other week to meet with a group of detainees. Those attorneys will be able to use prison tablets for interpretation, and they’ll be allowed to bring in laptops or other devices after they’re inspected by corrections staff.

The arrangement mimics how VAAP lawyers previously operated before last fall.

Many of the changes mandated by the settlement began during the months of negotiation, according to Jacobsen, but the legal agreement requires that the department’s policies be updated.

If the department doesn’t abide by the agreement there could be further legal action, but Jacobsen said the department has been cooperative.

“I am not imagining that this is going to be a problem,” she said.

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This story was originally published by VTDigger and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.