VTDigger reporting revealed Vermont prisons restricted immigration attorneys' access to ICE detainees under Commissioner Murad

VTDigger reporting published March 12, 2026, revealed that the Vermont Department of Corrections had progressively restricted immigration attorneys' access to detainees held for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under a federal contract, a practice attorneys said began after Jon Murad took over as interim, and later permanent, Commissioner of the department in August 2025. Under Murad's predecessor, Nick Deml, the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project (VAAP) had a standing arrangement with the department: attorneys and trained volunteer paralegals could bring personal phones and computers into Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington and Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans Town, where most Vermont-held detainees are kept, for a biweekly meeting slot, and the department supplied each detainee's alien registration number in advance so attorneys could identify their clients. VAAP executive director Jill Martin Diaz said the group was able to meet with 100% of detainees at each facility during that period.

Attorneys said the department stopped providing alien registration numbers in September 2025, and in late October 2025 barred VAAP staff from bringing personal devices or volunteer paralegals into the prisons for language interpretation, replacing the in-person arrangement with a single shared landline that attorneys described as having poor service. Martin Diaz said the changes cut attorney contact to about 25% of detainees, and that detainees separately went without interpretation for medical needs, disciplinary proceedings, and understanding facility rules — VAAP said one man was held in solitary confinement without being told, in a language he understood, why he was there. Murad disputed the characterization, telling VTDigger he was enforcing department policy that predated him and that the earlier practice of allowing personal devices had itself violated security policy; he said the department began issuing interpretation tablets to attorneys after an internal evaluation in January 2026.

No public reporting establishes the exact day the September or late-October 2025 changes took effect; VTDigger's March 12, 2026 article is the first public account of the practice, built on on-the-record statements from VAAP and ACLU of Vermont attorneys alongside Murad's on-record responses. Vermont holds ICE detainees under a state contract with the federal government that Gov. Phil Scott's administration renewed in July 2025, a period coinciding with the Trump administration's expanded immigration detention operations nationwide.

Updates

2026-01 — Vermont Human Rights Commission filed discrimination complaint against VTDOC [2, 3, 4]

The Vermont Human Rights Commission filed a discrimination complaint against the Vermont Department of Corrections in January 2026, after the ACLU of Vermont and the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project raised concerns about the department's treatment of non-English-speaking detainees, including restricted attorney access and inadequate interpretation for intake and other prison services.

2026-09-01 — VTDOC settled complaint, agreed to restore attorney access and interpretation [2, 3, 4]

The Vermont Department of Corrections settled the Human Rights Commission complaint, agreeing to provide immigration detainees with regular access to attorneys, language interpretation for intake and other services, and interpretation devices for staff to use with detainees, without a monetary payment. Department general counsel Lauri Fisher said the settlement was an opportunity for the department "to get better."