SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. -
We first told you about the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in February when a state report outlined deplorable living conditions for the female inmates.
The original problems listed in the report were overcrowding, the unsanitary conditions, including bugs crawling out of the shower drain, and a lack of job programs. Some of those issues are starting to get solved with the most recent addition at the correctional facility new superintendent Bob Arnell.
"We have to be successful. Anytime you take a challenging job like this you have to push yourself beyond your boundaries," Arnell said.
Arnell served as a colonel in the US Army. That includes three tours in Afghanistan. He's taking the attitude he learned there to fix what what's wrong here, eradicating larva in the shower drains, bringing more jobs for the women and fixing the toilet shortage.
"Bathrooms have been completed since of two weeks ago," Arnell said.
His can-do attitude has been noticed by Ashlie Tucker, an inmate at Chittenden Regional, who has noticed an improvement in living conditions.
"I think he is the best thing that happened to this facility because the old superintendent we had didn't care," Tucker said.
The old superintendent was David Tucker, who transferred with the female inmates from the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans. Male prisoners previously in Chittenden Regional switched facilities with the women and moved Northwest State.
The women in Chittenden Regional say things are getting better but there are areas to improve in. And as always there's the unexpected.
While I was touring the facility with Arnell some of the female inmates were complaining that the new;ly constructed bathrooms were locked and not available for them to use. Arnell had previously told us they had been completed two years ago and he was surprised to find they had been locked.
We wanted to know why the bathrooms were locked and so did Arnell. He immediately called upon his staff to find out why this was the case.
"If we put slips into him or anything he'll get on it as soon as he can he actually helps out a lot," Ashlie Tucker said.
Arnell had been the interim superintendent for about six months and just received the full time job Thursday. He says he's working on implementing a system that will work for everyone.
"I am excited but it's a challenge and you know I look at the reality of the situation and it's a challenge.
It's one Arnell is committed to solving. Before I even had a chance to leave the jail he had gotten an answer on why the bathrooms were locked to inmates. The bathroom stall doors hadn't been delivered yet.
