(HOST) "Challenges for Change" relies on Vermont’s Community Justice Network to help reduce the state’s prison population and costs. It also challenges ordinary Vermonters to change their attitude about incarceration. Commentator Deborah Luskin explains how Restorative Justice works to everyone’s benefit.
(LUSKIN) The population of Vermont has grown only ten percent in the last twenty years, and violent crime in that same period has dropped by thirty percent. But during these same years Vermont’s prison population has swelled, and the cost of incarceration has skyrocketed. In these twenty years, Vermont has created more prison beds – and filled them – and still has to send some offenders out of state.
But hard economic times, combined with Vermont’s "Challenges for Change" initiative, have placed the policies of jailing low-level offenders under scrutiny. What’s clear is that keeping people in jail is very expensive. What’s also become evident is that Vermont has a highly successful alternate, cheaper, and more effective means of dealing with non-violent offenders called Restorative Justice, administered through local Community Justice Centers and independent Reparative Boards.
Rob Hoffman is Secretary of Vermont’s Agency of Human Resources. He says, "The data on reparative boards is the equivalent of a home run." Not only does Vermont’s restorative justice program save money, it works: offenders who go through our programs connect with their communities and are less likely to re-offend than people sent to jail. Hoffman added, "Human services needs provided at the local level are more personal and more nimble."
Community Justice is local justice. It aims to repair the harm done by a non-violent offender in the community where the offense has taken place. Ideally, the process includes the victim, who has a chance to let the offender know how he or she has been affected by the crime. The process relies on trained volunteers with some administrative support.
Community Justice Centers also provide Circles of Support and Accountability for people newly released from prison. These COSAs, as they’re called, are comprised of citizen-volunteers who start meeting with offenders while they’re still inside, help arrange housing and employment, and provide support in negotiating life on the outside. They meet weekly, and help people re-enter civil life.
So, I’m pleased that this year’s state budget includes increased funding for Vermont’s Community Justice Centers. This is in keeping with "Challenges for Change," which specifically tasks the secretary of human services, the commissioner of education and the administrative judge to develop a collaborative plan to reduce the number of people who enter the corrections system, decrease the recidivism rate, improve community safety, and reduce the corrections budget.
In an era of great wealth, it was easy to shell out the bucks to send people to jail, just as it was easy to squander our money on junk at Big Box Stores. But the silver lining of hard times may be a return to frugality and greater value for the long-lasting and the local. Community Justice is just that: citizen volunteers working with victims and offenders to create safe and just communities for us all.