A second Vermont man this year has died in a Mississippi prison. 

Shawn Sears, 56, of Whiting, was found unresponsive in his cell Wednesday morning before medical staff attempted to give him emergency treatment, according to a press release from the Vermont Department of Corrections. 

“Mr. Sears was subsequently pronounced deceased,” the release said. 

Sears’ death comes as he was in the process of suing the Corrections Department for allegedly denying him access to prison programs. Those programs include taking high school classes and participating in restorative justice processes, which are often focused on rehabilitating both victims and offenders. 

Sears had been in prison since 2019 for crimes he committed in Vermont, the release said. He was one of 147 men that Vermont pays a private contractor to imprison at Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Mississippi. 

The Missisppi prison is run by one of the largest for-profit prison companies in the country, CoreCivic, which Vermont contracts with to help mitigate overcrowding in Vermont’s in-state prisons. The facility holds more than 2,500 inmates — which is about six times the size of Vermont’s largest prison — and is more than a 1,300-mile drive from Burlington. 

Sears filed a civil lawsuit against the Corrections Department in September 2025, alleging that he had improperly been denied programming while in prison, according to court records. Court records show that Sears disputed being subject to an internal department policy that allows the department to hold incarcerated people past their minimum sentences if the department deems them to be a danger to themselves or others. 

In Sears’ initial court filing, which he wrote himself, Sears alleged the department violated state law and its own directives by determining he was subject to their risk containment policy. Sears wrote in the filing that his status as “risk contained” denied him access to programming in prison that could have lowered his chance of recidivism. 

Haley Sommer, a spokesperson for the department, declined to comment on the legal case. 

According to a Department of Corrections’ database, Sears had a minimum release date of April 27, 2021, and a maximum release date of Feb. 21, 2055. A minimum release date is the earliest a person is eligible for parole, and their maximum release date is the end of their sentence, according to the Vermont Parole Board. 

Since Sears filed the lawsuit in court, the Vermont Prisoners’ Rights Office had represented his case. Court calendars show he was scheduled to appear in Orleans County Superior civil court in June. His court case appears to have been dismissed Thursday. 

Sears is at least the fifth person to die in the custody of the Vermont Department of Corrections this year, according to the department’s press statements. 

Nine people died in the custody of the department in 2025, Sommer previously told VTDigger. The department’s investigative unit will review Sears’ death, per department protocol, according to the release.

This week includes what for many is a long Memorial Day weekend, which means you might have even more time than usual to go out and enjoy Vermont’s arts and entertainment scene.

The next week offers up a multitude of options, including a big band at Higher Ground, a wunderkind Burlington guitarist at Foam Brewers, an opera in an opera house (makes sense) and a Texas musical legend finding himself on stage in central Vermont.

Toss in an art exhibit from a Burlington architect and the sounds of France in a cocktail lounge and you’ve got a recipe for a full weekend, and then some.

Bread and Butter and Heather Maloney

7 p.m. Thursday, May 21, Massachusetts-based singer-songwriter Heather Maloney takes part in the Silo Sessions series in the barn at Bread and Butter Farm, Shelburne. $17-$20 in advance, $19-$22 day of show. breadandbutterfarm.com

The Democratic and Republican leaders of the Vermont House said Wednesday that a pitched debate over new development rules for rural land has led to a rise in “hateful” and “demonizing” messages targeting state legislators.

“These personal, threatening attacks are unacceptable anywhere, and especially in Vermont, where we have a long history of civil debate and respectful dialogue,” wrote House Speaker Jill Krowinski, a Democrat, and House Minority Leader Pattie McCoy, a Republican.

The unusual joint statement comes as legislators work to unravel a two-year-old law that would subject development near ecologically sensitive areas — as well as some new roads and driveways — to greater regulatory scrutiny. Opposition to the law, known as Act 181, has grown into what some have described as a rural rebellion, with potential electoral ramifications this fall.

Krowinski and McCoy wrote that it was healthy and important to debate the law, and that legislators had listened: The House and Senate recently voted to remove the most controversial provisions from Act 181, and Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, is expected to sign those changes into law.

But the leaders said that some had taken the debate too far and targeted an architect of the law, Representative Amy Sheldon, with “truly reprehensible” emails and social media posts.

Conor Kennedy, Krowinski’s chief of staff, provided an array of screenshots showing people calling Sheldon, the Democratic chair of the House Environment Committee, a Nazi, a dictator, a “retarded meatpuppet” and more.

“Step on my grass and one of us will die,” one self-described Vermonter wrote.

According to Kennedy, each of the comments originated with a 15,000-member Facebook group known as Rural Vermont Rising, which has served as a key organizing tool for the anti-Act 181 movement.

Colleen Geddis, who created the group, said Wednesday that she and her fellow moderators had banned personal attacks and harassment from the page and sought to root out and remove offending comments.

“We try to police it, but there’s only so much you can do on social media,” she said. “It’s not the way to get things done, and we know that.”

Political debate in Vermont tends to be more civil than elsewhere, perhaps due to its small size, tradition of local governance and citizen legislature. But certain subjects have led to overheated rhetoric in recent decades, including debates over civil unions in 2000 and gun rights in 2018.

Sheldon, who was first elected to the House in 2014, said she had never witnessed as much vitriol as with the debate over Act 181. Though she steers clear of social media, she said, she had received “veiled threats” and, at times, felt physically unsafe.

“I get that land use laws touch on property rights, and that’s a thorny issue,” she said. “I think we responded to legitimate pushback, but it’s not stopping. It’s like, ‘We met you halfway,’ and it’s unrelenting.”

Paul Heintz can be reached at paul.heintz@globe.com. Follow him on X @paulheintz.