No one succeeds without…
2023-09-24
Dear friend,
How would you finish the above sentence?
The word most on my mind today is "community."
No one succeeds as an individual without a community behind them.
Succcessful individuals often come from succcessful communities.
Okay, I know I'm driving some spelling hawks crazy with that extra "c."
It was an error when I typed it the first time, but I left it in on purpose/for fun.
"C" highlights "community" -- the more the better.
My focus today is on the role of community in corrections, but first...
--> For any 8th-graders out there, the Sept. 30 deadline is approaching to apply to be a legislative page. This is a really cool program that I had no awareness of prior to this January. It's a little harder for families this far from Montpelier to participate, but I encourage anyone with school-age children to check it out.
--> For college grads (and also not limited to college grads -- the job is filled with professionals of all ages) who want a seasonal job with incredible exposure to the State House, applications are open for 2024 committee assistants.
Both opportunities are highly recommended! If you want to hear more or need assistance with your application, please email me.
Legislative pages in green jackets are 8th-graders from across Vermont who serve in the State House under the Sergeant-at-Arms. Here are some this spring getting the chamber ready for the day's session.
***
Vermont’s prison system is brutal. We all want justice, and safety in our homes. The Vermont Department of Corrections plays an essential role in providing these.
Its work is also deeply flawed. Today’s correctional facilities are, in fact, yesterday’s. The newest facility was built in 2003 in Springfield. A planned vocational training facility there was scrapped during construction because of high infrastructure costs on the site. I would argue that, as a result, Southern State Correctional Facility (SSCF) was obsolete the day it opened.
The majority of our inmates reside in facilities built circa 1972. And while you 51-year-old readers out there are looking amazing today, these buildings are looking and feeling as dated as you might imagine.
An honors unit in Vermont's prison for women in South Burlington, built ~1972
Yesterday’s criminal justice system was punitive, and these prisons are difficult environments to live and work in. Most “justice-involved individuals” coming in the doors at these facilities are repeat offenders. They enter prison not doing well in life, come out worse, and go back sooner or later.
Warehousing people in a harsh environment isn’t just, and it isn’t working. How much of the recent violent crime in our towns is connected to repeat offenders? Between some of the recent Deerfield Valley News headlines seared in my mind and the petty theft being reported all over, it seems like all of it is.
In recent decades, Vermont has shifted our public safety and criminal justice systems toward community-based, restorative justice. We know from evidence that these tools work. But many of us today are fatigued when it comes to the presence of crime, if not also anxious at apparent increases. What's happening out there?
As many towns seek to invest more in police, we also need as a state to consider the benefits of moving as much of our prison population as possible into updated facilities that are humane and that support the rehabilitation of the individual.
And that’s not all. There is no successful individual without a community behind them. The incarcerated population is no different. Yet, due to programming constraints and a lack of investment over decades, many individuals exiting prison are doing so without having connected with support groups or job training or any meaningful use of their time besides TV and coloring books.
In the 2023 legislative session, House Corrections and Institutions wrote language into the state’s 2023–2024 Capital Bill to advance a new long-term vision for these facilities along these lines. The bill, passed by a unanimous voice vote and signed by Governor Scott, states:
It is the intent of the General Assembly that the State’s long-term goal and vision for justice-involved individuals includes their reentry into the community through a system of supports grounded in restorative justice principles.
The bill also requires that the design of any new correctional facility consider “the use of evidence-based principles for wellness environments for supporting trauma-informed practices.”
Cells for women with mental health issues at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility.
What does that mean?
The design, construction, and programming of these buildings will incorporate tools that are shown to work (evidence-based) that rely on five principles of trauma-informed care:
Safety.
Trustworthiness.
Choice.
Collaboration.
Empowerment.
Unlike other essential state agencies, Corrections is out-of-sight, out-of-mind, for most Vermonters. To be successful based on the principles we have adopted will ask a higher level of collaboration between Corrections and Vermonters everywhere.
***
This is the second posts in a series. The first is: Inside Vermont’s prison for women.
What are your questions or comments about incarceration in Vermont? If you're interacted with DOC, I'd like to talk with you.
Thanks for reading!