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>> When they come on.
That's connected.
>> Wow. We got a chat panel.
>> How do you turn it [inaudible]?
>> Says it's connected.
I'm going to take its word at that.
I didn't hear anything click but.
[ Beeps ]
>> I just heard a bunch of beeping.
>> Maybe that's it.
So hopefully that will work for us.
Hi. This is the webinar series on Restorative Justice.
The webinar for today on Restorative Justice.
And we're going to begin at the top of the hour, so if you'll just stay
with us for a little bit we'll do that.
>> Okay.
[ Silence ]
[ Clearing throat ]
>> Marianne [inaudible].
>> Other people that [inaudible].
>> [Inaudible].
[ Silence ]
>> Okay.
>> And this says mobile pages [assumed spelling].
[ Inaudible chatter ]
[ Beeps ]
[ Silence ]
[ Rustling of papers ]
[ Coughing ]
[ Inaudible chatter ]
[ Silence ]
[ Rustling noise ]
>> Drew: Hi.
We're about five minutes out from beginning the webinar on Restorative Justice.
My name is Drew Carberry of the National Crime Prevention Council.
And we will begin at the top of the hour.
As soon as to the top of the hour as we can.
[ Silence ]
[ Laughter ]
[ Rustling noise ]
[ Inaudible chatter ]
>> Drew?
>> Drew: Yes sir?
>> Do you have a moment?
I'm seeing on the screen it says Weed and Seed.
Is that an initiative?
>> Drew: Right.
That's the sort of over-arching project that I'm under that's sponsoring the webinars.
>> Oh, wow.
[ Silence ]
[ Rustling noise ]
[ Silence ]
[ Whispering ]
>> Drew: Hi, this is Drew Carberry of the National Crime Prevention Council.
We're going to begin our webinar in a few minutes,
about three minutes at the top of the hour.
Today's webinar is on Restorative Justice.
We're going to feature the programming at the Brattleboro, Vermont Center for Community.
No. Let me get it right.
Community Justice Center.
Sorry.
>> You got it.
>> Drew: I work with a Center for Community Safety a lot and I just fell into that trap.
[ Chuckle ]
[ Silence ]
[ Pen scratching ]
[ Beep ]
[ Silence ]
>> Gloria: Hi, Drew.
Are you there?
>> Drew: I am.
Is this Gloria?
>> Gloria: This is Gloria.
Yes.
>> Drew: How are you?
>> Gloria: Very well.
How are you?
>> Drew: Good, thank you.
We're going to start in about two-and-a-half minutes.
We're just sort of holding for the top of the hour.
>> Gloria: Okay.
>> Drew: It's good to hear your voice.
>> Gloria: Good to hear yours.
I'm doing my Master's in Criminal Justice and I'm just.
When I looked at this I'm going wow, this is a fun, fun class.
>> Drew: Well, very good.
>> Gloria: Yes.
>> Drew: Okay.
I hope this works out.
Good.
>> I hope we don't let you down, Gloria.
>> Gloria: Oh, you won't.
[ Beep ]
>> Drew: I just learned today I'm going to be in Milwaukee in May.
>> Gloria: What date?
>> Drew: May 19th.
>> Gloria: Oh, that's the day.
That's AmeriCorps week.
That's the day we're having our closing ceremony.
>> Drew: Where will you be?
>> Gloria: Devil's Lake, which is up by Wisconsin Dells.
>> Drew: Oh.
Well, I won't make that but.
>> Gloria: Yes.
It's across the state.
>> Drew: Right.
Right.
>> Gloria: But I am going to be in Milwaukee on, let's see, the 20th.
[ Beep ]
For the Service Learning conference.
>> Drew: Okay.
>> Gloria: I think it's in [inaudible].
>> Drew: I have to figure out what my itinerary is, but if we can work it out there's a drink.
>> Gloria: Yes.
Definitely.
>> Mel: This is Mel from the Community Justice Center, and I actually.
I'm a Wisconsinite myself.
>> Gloria: Hi.
>> Mel: Hi.
Actually, I lived in Madison for four years before I moved to Vermont.
>> Gloria: You didn't miss the winter this year.
Trust me.
>> Mel: Oh, I've heard all about it.
>> Gloria: Oh, it was bad.
[ Beep ]
>> Mel: Sounds rough.
I mean we had a winter up of our own, but.
>> Gloria: Yes.
>> Mel: I [inaudible] broke some records.
>> Gloria: We did.
>> Mel: Yes.
>> Drew: Hi, this is Drew Carberry of the National Crime Prevention Council.
We're going to begin our webinar today in about a minute.
I want to get to the top of the hour so we can include everybody that wants to attend.
And we'll pick up the conference call part, and we'll begin the webinar in about a minute.
>> Mel: Thanks, Drew.
>> Thanks, Drew.
>> Drew: [Inaudible].
[ Beep ]
[ Inaudible chatter ]
[ Banging ]
>> Drew: Now, Gloria, are you online?
Can you see?
Or are you just on the conference call part?
>> Gloria: I will be online in just a minute.
>> Drew: Oh, okay.
>> Gloria: Or I think I will be.
>> Drew: Uh-huh.
[ Shuffling papers ]
>> Gloria: I'm going to the webex.com.
>> Drew: Okay.
>> Gloria: Yep.
[ Shuffling papers ]
>> Drew: Good afternoon everyone.
This is Drew Carberry and I'll be the moderator for this webinar today.
We're pleased to have with us representatives from the Brattleboro,
Vermont Community Justice Center and they're going to do a presentation.
But I want to do a few ground rules first before we begin.
Simply the ground rules are that we're on the WebEx webinar system,
which is the first time I'm trying it.
We've changed vendors in a way and this is my first foray into that.
So this is WebEx, so please be a little patient with us as we proceed with this.
I don't know all the display buttons and the right buttons to push as I did
with the other format, but we'll try it.
The other thing is that if you have to.
If you can on your phone during the conference call, if you could either use the mute button
or press star seven, and that typically will mute most phones.
If you want to unmute to ask a question or something,
you can try star seven again and that would unmute.
Those are just a few of the ground rules.
Zack and Mel, who are going to present for us in a moment, thought that they maybe they would go
through the presentations and then leave time for questions and answers closer
to the end or to the middle of the session.
But if you have something that's pressing or you need to clarify something, then just speak up
or raise your hands electronically, either way, and we'll try to answer
that question just the once for clarification or if you didn't understand something
or just wanted some elaboration on something.
But if you have a question that's a discussion question,
why don't we save that until the middle or later part of the presentation.
So once again, the mute button is star seven, and then unmute is star seven again.
If you can do that.
If you want to stay live during the time, that's fine, but I would ask you to refrain from typing
or be quiet or other conversations I suppose.
So today is a webinar about Restorative Justice.
And once again, I'll just iterate that this is the first time I've used this software
and I hope that you can be patient with that, that I'm trying to remove them.
Here we go.
Okay.
>> Yes. Hit the unavailable.
>> Drew: This is the Green Mountain Justice Restoring Community in Vermont.
We have with us representatives from the Brattleboro Community Justice Center.
We have Mel Motel [assumed spelling] who's the coordinator there.
>> Mel: Hello.
>> Drew: Hello, Mel.
And then Zack Trent who's an AmeriCorps VISTA serving at that site.
>> Zack: Yep.
Thank you.
>> Drew: Good morning and good afternoon, I should say.
So what we'll do is we'll proceed with the presentation.
I'll try to activate it here.
We have a couple polling questions.
The presentation is one hour long, or we hope to be done at 4:00 either way.
Four o'clock Eastern.
And that's sort of the theme as we have it.
So Mel has been involved in reentry for what.
Now, Zack, you're going to begin the presentation?
>> Zack: Well, yes.
Mel can introduce us.
>> Drew: Okay.
>> Zack: And then I'll begin.
>> Drew: Mel Motel has been involved in reentry for a number of years
as you may have heard on the pre-conference call.
She sort of cut her teeth in Wisconsin on the reentry issue working
out of the Madison Urban Ministry and enjoying that.
And then she's transferred that to Vermont.
And Zack Trent, the other presenter, is an AmeriCorps VISTA with an extensive
and varied background and he'll fill you in on that.
But if it's okay with you, I'll turn it over to Mel Motel to begin our presentation.
>> Mel: Great.
Thanks, Drew.
And thanks everyone for joining us.
We're really honored to have such a what seems like diverse group with us.
And we're sure that you all have so much expertise in areas that are new to us
that we're hoping we can do a little enlightening regarding restorative justice.
How has the Vermont Department of Corrections implemented restorative justice
with regards to reentry?
And try to give you a good idea about not just the theory, but the practice.
How do we implement restorative justice with reentry on a day-to-day level.
So there are a few different sections to our presentation.
The first one is we're going to talk a little bit about the history of restorative justice
in the Vermont Department of Corrections.
Then we're going to talk a bit about restorative justice basics.
We're going to talk a bit about our programs at the Brattleboro Justice Center,
which is just to situate you in southern Vermont.
Southeastern Vermont, sort of touching New Hampshire and also Massachusetts.
And then we're going to invite a couple of wonderful folks, Jevon and Karen,
who are participant and a provision officer respectively to talk a little bit
about their experience and to answer your questions.
I just briefly want to thank Drew Carberry for arranging this,
so we're really honored that he asked us to talk.
We also really want to thank Derek Medovnick [assumed spelling], Hans Johnson, John Gorsik,
Howard Vare, David Peebles, and Jan Devinski from various agencies and individuals
who really helped us put this together.
And also thanks in advance for Jevon and Karen who will be joining us later.
And as Drew said, please try to hold the questions till the end
of our presentation unless it's for clarification,
or if Drew prompts you to participate in some way.
We'll have about 15 minutes free session hopefully at the end.
So I'm going to hand it over to Zack to start.
Thanks.
>> Zack: Great.
Can everyone hear okay?
All right.
I guess there are people who aren't muted.
>> Drew: Folks are all mute and probably.
Okay.
>> Zack: All right.
Great. All right.
Drew, can we go ahead and advance?
All right.
So my goal is really to explore how restorative justice was chosen to be a framework
for the Department of Corrections in Vermont.
And Mel is really going to fill us in on what restorative justice is
as a philosophy and as a practice.
So we're looking at a problem.
1990 the then Department of Corrections Commissioner John Gorsik was looking
at some very serious issues.
And three of the most serious were that one, that the population of prisoners was growing
at an unsustainable rate overcrowding and ever-increasing strain on the state resources.
Really highlighting an ongoing problem.
And a quote from John just to illustrate that problem said that in 1991
by some measures Vermont was the most over-crowded prison system
in the nation with demand at 191% of capacity.
We certainly had one of the highest out counts in the country with 20%
of the sentenced population on the street.
So that was a glaring reality that the Department was looking at.
Another was that social science was really beginning to illustrate
that the current approach to corrections just wasn't working.
I mean you had, you know, one-half or two-thirds of prisoners going back
to prison within [inaudible] years.
And there was really some emerging research that we'll look briefly at.
But I should definitely highlight Jonathan Brakery's [assumed spelling] work,
Crime Machine and Punishment.
And really, I say the strongest idea to take away from this is
that informal social control was really valuable in keeping people from reoffending.
So that's something that we'll look at as we go forward,
but we'll highlight a little bit more of that research in a moment.
Then also, public opinion of the Department was really unfavorable.
I mean we've all heard anecdotes of people being slapped on the wrist
for crimes that feel are very serious.
And we're working [inaudible] many of us know that overcrowding really can keep people
from spending as much as a lot of people would like for crimes committed.
Really, through the newspapers, letters, public meetings, it's really becoming obvious
that the public was not satisfied with the Department's performance.
Another quote from John says, at castigated corrections nightly had the revolving door
and using [inaudible] now.
And victim's community, that's the people most affected by crimes, declared us to be the enemy.
Well, these are really serious problems and John Gorsik and many others
in the Department really wanted to know what to do about it.
Great. A nice splashing [inaudible] on there.
So we know things aren't working, but what should we do?
The Department really wanted to know what the public expected of them and needed to know
that so they could evaluate what to change.
So a first question that really came out was what does the public want from us?
And it was decided that there was a need for some serious market research,
and the Department hired John Dolone [assumed spelling] Associates.
This was also in the ?90s.
And this was a professional marketing team that had worked for large corporations,
and they really persuaded the Department that they could take public opinion
and really quantify it or put it in words that could lead to actions.
And from that market research, I mean it lasted for months
and it was very in-depth including interviews and phone calls and a lot of hard work.
Some of the results from that was that the Department was reminded that the people really
of course wanted to be safe from crime and from violent predators.
It wasn't really, you know, news.
Also, they wanted people to be held accountable for their crimes and really felt dissatisfied
with the level of accountability for people who had committed crimes.
Also, people wanted an acremental [assumed spelling] and they also wanted some assurance
that the Department was doing a good job with taxpayer dollars.
They also, this was kind of new.
They wanted the damage caused by the crime to be repaired, and you could really read into that
and assume that, you know, most of the time when you put someone behind bars
that the actual damage of the crime isn't going to be necessarily fixed.
Now the largest revelation, which [inaudible], the Department found
out that the local community, actually wanted to be a part of the corrections process.
We've all heard the phrase not in my backyard.
Well, Vermont enjoys the saying yes, you know, here's my backyard.
I want to become involved.
And it was news and it really allowed the Department to consider doing assistance change
and really allowed themselves to be challenged by this new [inaudible].
And as far as the local community wanting
to actually be a part there were some very specific things that they heard.
One was that local communities didn't want Corrections to be at arm's length.
They wanted to be involved.
And they didn't want to be removed from the process as a whole.
They are also hearing that they wanted the harm done by the contacts to be addressed
in the community in which it occurred.
And, you know, this was news.
That people wanted to become involved and address the crime where it happened.
Also, local communities wanted to make some progress in reducing and addressing crime
and conflict in their neighborhoods.
And they are willing to be a partner with Corrections in administering justice.
So the goal is to involve community and Corrections, so how did that happen?
Well, around 1990 a lot of ideas began to emerge that really allowed the Department
to take some basically concrete steps
in involving the community in a safe and effective manner.
Some of this research had to do with evolutionary biology, and it really, you know,
[inaudible] effort was the sociocultural evolution.
And really began to ask what is it in our culture that allows people
to respond effectively to crime and to keep from committing new crimes?
And again, those are things like informal social norms, and the idea of reciprocity
that I will treat you as you will treat me.
And really you need to have a conversation in order for this idea to take place,
as opposed to people just being from behind bars.
Another big movement was the social capital movement, and this basically, you know,
let people know that social networks are very powerful in a community.
And they challenged the Department to reach out and to begin to look at reentry as not just
to Department homes as partly their own function.
Also, evidence-based practices, which really, you know, make sense now.
But basically just said that decision-makers really have to base their actions
on scientific data and on, you know, practices that are evidence-based to get results.
It's kind of, you know, kind of difficult for social agencies.
And then finally, well, you know, another big one is restorative justice,
and Mel is going to really talk about that in particular.
But just so you know it's actually a framework for justice,
and to put it in a nutshell it uses crimes as a violation of relationships,
so we'll look at that a lot closer later.
>> Drew: Zack, let me see if I can try one of these polling questions with your permission.
Is that okay?
>> Zack: Sure.
>> Drew: Maybe if we can just see who's on the call I will try to summon that up
to see if I can actually get this done.
[ Buzzing ]
Okay. I guess the first question we have is what type of organization do you belong to?
So maybe you can either click on that if that's possible.
Are you seeing that in a proper way?
Oh, here we have some responses.
>> Zack: Yes.
It's good.
>> Drew: Are you seeing it Zack?
Zack, are you seeing it?
>> Zack: It's here.
It's good.
>> Drew: Okay.
So we're getting some responses.
I appreciate that.
So it looks like we have a pretty good distribution of.
I can't tell.
I can see the bar graph, but I can't see the numbers.
But it looks like we have a pretty good distribution among community-based,
faith-based, and Corrections.
And maybe some with others [inaudible] the field a little bit.
So that's the sense of who's on the call, so I hope that helps us see who our audience is.
I'm going to close the poll now, and Zack, you can resume I guess.
Okay?
>> Zack: All right.
Thank you.
So restorative justice was decided to be the safest and the most effective model to use
in involving a community, which was, you know, a stated goal on the committee.
And as Mel describes restorative justice, I think you'll really grasp why it's so valuable
if you wanted the community to be involved in administering justice.
So real quick, restorative justice was first used in Vermont
through low-level probation offenses, and that was through the Reparative Program
which we'll touch on closer in a moment.
And later, restorative justice was used through the Serious
and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative, the SVORI grant.
And that was actually, when we began to use restorative justice through the reentry process.
And just to highlight, the State Legislature really valued restorative justice
and actually put it into state law.
[ Rustling sounds ]
Can we move on?
Okay. Thanks.
Just a little more about the reparative boards, that actually began as a Department
of Corrections-owned program that was using community volunteers.
But the centers where it was happening were actually office buildings.
There's one in each county.
And this really caused some problems.
The DOC was running it from top to bottom, so it really didn't feel like it was community-owned.
And also if you do.
If you're addressing crimes in a one-county office, you may have a crime committed
in one town, but you have volunteers from another town.
And that really is going around the goal of addressing harm done in the communities
in which they occurred which was another stated goal the Department worked on.
So, you know, they continued to work on this and eventually they decentralized the program,
and it's not DOC run from top to bottom.
And actually, First Unity Justice Center established in Burlington through a partnership
from the mayor and [inaudible] Mitch von Grosick [assumed spelling].
That's a little bit about bringing R.J. [inaudible].
So this is an interesting question.
We saw that working with lower-level offenders was really valuable.
So the Department wondered, the hypothesis was that the community wanted to be involved
in the reentry of folks with crimes like sex offense, domestic abuse, ***, and ***.
So you might think about that yourself.
If you think, your community would want to work with folks with crimes like these.
Okay? And the DOC reasoned that indeed community as stakeholders would want to be involved
in the reentry of folks with crimes like these.
And we see this as a reality [inaudible] of Vermont community members
and victims are working together to ensure the successful reentry of folks with kind
of typically keep them reintegrating into a community.
>> Drew: Let me see if I can pull up that other question, Zack.
>> Zack: Okay.
>> Drew: Let me try that.
See if that's the right question this time.
[ Coughing ]
[ Silence ]
I, so what.
What will we respond, those of us on the call?
Have we responded the same way as Vermont folks did as a community?
Let me if I can open that.
Let me just try to go for that.
Okay. Try that.
[ Silence ]
[ Rattling sounds ]
[ Chuckling ]
The results are coming in.
And apparently they answer true, that most folks on the call represent
that their community would also want to be involved with offenders who were serious
and violent offenders, so that probably mirrors what you came up with in Vermont, Zack.
>> Zack: Excellent.
>> Drew: I'm going to close that hole now.
>> Zack: Thanks.
Okay. So just to kind of wrap things up, so you know some information
about the justice centers in Vermont.
[ Silence ]
Today we have 12 community justice centers throughout the state.
All of us are using restorative justice either with low-risk rationers [assumed spelling],
returning prisoners, or both like the center here in Brattleboro.
And all centers have some tie to the local town government and work closely with Department
of Corrections staff to protect our community volunteers,
and to make sure that they are practicing restorative justice effectively.
And we wouldn't be doing our presentation justice without talking a little bit more
about Mr. Gorsik who was the commissioner at the time.
Many attribute bringing restorative justice to Vermont from his hard work and willingness
to challenge, often the Department.
A quick quote.
We have a very good view of what doesn't work.
We're beginning to understand that restorative approach is to place the victim at the center
and then embrace the principles of focusing on understanding the harm done.
On repairing the damage to the relationships with community and victim.
On adding value.
On acknowledging responsibility, making amends, and on being sorry are more likely
to work than what we are doing now.
And so now, we can hear from Mel and really look as restorative justice
and get a clearer view of why it's so valuable.
>> Mel: Thanks, Zack.
Okay. So actually, I'm going to talk a little bit about this restorative justice concept.
Since I am not in a room with any of you, all I can't really get a sense
of how many folks are familiar with restorative justice and how many are not.
So I'm going to go with the assumption that no one knows anything.
Sorry if I offend anyone by stating the obvious.
And of course, this is the kind of conversation we could have for hours and days,
but we'll try to do it in about, I don't know, six minutes.
So I'm going to talk a little bit about the restorative justice system that's so attractive
to the Vermont Department of Corrections and how we've put it into practice.
Restorative justice is a needs-based philosophy from a traditional criminal justice system.
The stakeholder is involved when a crime is committed.
It's not just the offender and it's not just the state, you know.
When there's a criminal justice proceeding after a crime is committed, it's usually the State
of Vermont or whatever versus the person who committed the crime.
But what restorative justice does is the victim and his or her needs is important.
These are just a few needs that we commonly see when we speak with victims and find
out how they're feeling and what's going on after a crime has been committed.
A lot of times a victim, somebody's who's been offended against, needs information, you know.
Where is the perpetrator?
A lot of times folks who have been offended against they're perpetrator goes to prison,
and they don't know when the person's coming back.
And they don't know if they're going to be safe or not.
Another need that we hear about a lot is being heard.
Often the victim or survivor, their story is lost in the whole shuffle
and that basically mostly focuses on the offender.
Another need that we hear from victims is need for safety.
Gee, well, you know, if someone is around town who beat up my husband
or sexually offended my daughter, I don't feel safe here, and I need to feel safe.
And restitution for vindication is another need that we hear about a lot.
People feeling like they should be repaid for the damages they sustained,
be it monetary or material or spiritual.
I mean if you think about a ***, I'm sure many of you might know a survivor of a ***.
Can you think of a time when the needs of the person who was *** were met when maybe
that person's story was discounted or were from the very beginning
after the offense was committed, you know.
Someone will go to the police station and their story will be discounted time and time again.
Victims are pretty much pushed outside the room.
So restorative justice is thinking about these needs and trying to acknowledge them.
Another person or people that, or the state never becomes committed and the offender
or offenders, offenders need safety too.
If you think about if anybody works with sex offenders, among many other barriers
that they experience upon reentering the community safety's a big one.
People get pretty, and rightfully so, pissed off about people who have committed sex offenses.
And there's a lot of stigma surrounding it and a lot of people need to worry about their safety.
Are they going to get hurt?
Are visual [inaudible] come up as well we know.
So that's, you know, that's a need that we need to address.
Longing, connection, support, encouragement to experience personal transformation,
those are all needs that we end up addressing when we work with folks who are coming back
to the community after being incarcerated.
I'm sure you all can think of some other needs if you work with or know
or are someone who's been offended against, or someone who has offended.
And another stakeholder to take note of is the community,
and this is another really important stakeholder in the restorative justice processes.
Think about, you know, a burglary.
If a burglary takes place down the block, even if you weren't a direct victim,
in a way you still might end up feeling like a victim.
A burglary in one house might make everyone else on the block feel unsafe.
Yes, it can be a big deal.
A lot of people's concern gets [inaudible] if they're worried about their own safety
because of something that happened to a neighbor.
And we're saying it does matter.
You need to have attention paid to them as victims, or affected parties as we might say.
And also a lot of people in the community when a crime is committed recognize
that the community actually can and has contributed
to whatever conditions [inaudible] are sort of, make it sort of [inaudible] commit a crime.
A lot of times [inaudible] might not meet the needs of folks
in our community who are struggling.
And people that volunteer with us community members see it as their responsibility
to make the offender feel connected to the community so that they feel
like they're worth something and that they don't need to engage
in criminal activities to get their needs met.
We also talk about in restorative justice affected parties.
These are families of offenders, families of victims, neighbors.
Other people that are touched by a crime.
Really briefly, we're going to look at a couple different views.
This is a great chart from Howard Zehr's Little Book of Restorative Justice that we love to use.
And when you problems like this, when you see criminal justice and restorative justice I need
to let you know that we're not saying that it's one or the other.
Oftentimes, the criminal justice approach and the restorative justice approach work together.
And certainly, in the West where we live we must honor the system that we've already created
and figure out how to work with that.
So when you think about crime criminal justice typically looks at crime
as a violation of the law and the state.
Restorative justice looks at crime as something that violates people's relationship.
Criminal justice sees crime as something that creates [inaudible],
and restorative justice sees it as creates obligations.
And criminal justice as done with the state is a body that determines blame and imposes pain,
or punishment is another way to look at it.
Whereas restorative justice considers the stakeholders involved
in restoring responsibilities once a crime is committed in how to repair the harm.
And criminal justice sees the central focus as making sure offenders get what they deserve.
Whereas restorative justice looks at is as what does the victim need
and what is the responsibility of the offender?
One way that I thought about this is Amy Holloway, who's the Director of Victim Services
with the Vermont Department of Corrections, did a training a few weeks ago where she passed
out articles in a newspaper about crimes that were committed.
And just pretend you're an alien from another planet looking at these articles
about crime, what are they saying?
And what we realized is it focused almost completely on the offender.
Like who was guilty.
Who should be to blame?
Who should be punished?
And what do they deserve?
And these almost nothing mentioned about the victims in any of the articles.
And so the next slide sort of breaks this under in a different way.
>> Drew: Let me interrupt for a second, Mel, if I can.
If you're able to mute your phone that would be great.
Or use star seven.
There's some ambient noise that's sort of interfering
with the quality of the presentation.
If you're able to do that, fine.
Then hit star seven again to unmute and go from there.
Thanks.
>> Mel: Okay.
So another thing to think about is this is called a criminal justice,
so right there that more than implies that we're talking about the criminal, I mean to us.
So some questions that criminal justice asks are what laws have been broken?
Who did it?
What do they deserve?
Whereas restorative justice questions are who has been hurt or harmed or impacted?
What are their needs?
And whose obligations arise from that crime?
On the next, slide a restorative lens.
This describes two principles we're seeing restoratively, and this is pretty much some
of the stuff that we've talked about it.
But there's a focus on harm and consequent needs of the victim, community and offender.
Restorative contacts who would address the obligations.
We would use an inclusive a collaborative process.
We try to involve people as much as possible, you know, rather than just talking
about the person who offended and what we think they need or the victim.
We try to involve those folks in letting us know what they need.
And there's an effort to put right wrongs that were committed.
Now our work is not outcome-based, which is one of the things that makes it difficult to report.
We don't really go for numbers.
We're doing some very interpersonal work here.
And we also have to remember, talking about putting right the wrongs,
that wrongs can't always be put right.
A lot of times, when someone has been victimized they're not going to heal.
You know, there are steps that we can take to make things better for that person.
But the truth is if someone has been, you know, offended against that just might be
with them for the rest of their life.
So, you know, we talk about putting things right, but we don't talk about that
as a necessary outcome because it honestly doesn't always happen.
So I'm going to talk for a couple minutes before we welcome our guests about a couple
of the programs that we do at the Justice Center,
particularly the restorative reentry program that Zack and I are a part of.
The first program I'm going to talk about is the Reparative Probation Program,
and that's been around for about a dozen years and has been quote on quote owned
by the Justice Centers for about three-and-a-half or four years.
Now the Reparative Program is a Victim Center of Restorative Justice process.
It's a panel of trained citizen volunteers who meet monthly and list the person
who offended and the various crimes.
And they address these restorative justice questions that we have been talking about.
You know, who was harmed?
How were they harmed?
And what can be done to make right the wrong?
On a monthly basis, the Reparative Panel meets with those who have been referred to us
by the Department of Corrections to learn about the impact of their crime.
They get to recommend to the victim and the community when [inaudible].
Also, to learn ways to avoid reoffend.
And let's see.
If a victim wants to come to the Reparative Panel, their input can be considered.
You know, they could write us a letter saying what they'd like the offender to hear.
So we try to, whenever possible, involve the victim's needs
in determining how the [inaudible] event, the offender, can take the next step.
Then the other active program that we have here that revolved
around restorative justice is the Restorative Reentry Program.
And this emerged from serious and violent offender reentry initiative funding.
It's a collaboration among the Department of Corrections, that's local and state.
The town government, and the Community Justice Center.
Now different community justice centers have different relationships with all these entities.
For instance, when we were this town building other justice centers are
in with police departments.
Others are just totally are their own.
But there are some states from all three of these entities
when we're doing restorative reentry in Vermont.
The modelization of the work of the Mennonite Central Committee and others
like multiple tribal communities who have been around for a long time,
can also work in more Westernized societies like New Zealand whose.
Their inner process, a lot of their criminal justice processes are very restorative actually.
And our Justice Center, particularly our reentry program here,
relies almost completely on volunteers.
We have a Community Advisory Panel which is a group of.
Oh, man. Which is a group of professionals and community members who meet with returning folks
to sort of co-create a reentry plan.
And we have circles of support and accountability, or COSA,
which I'll talk about more in a minute.
We also have one-on-one mentoring which is a new program that pairs adults
up with adult offenders who are returning to the community.
And it's really wonderful, but it's not as restorative as COSA certainly.
Okay. So I'll wrap this up.
I'll tell you about COSA and then we'll invite [inaudible] to join the conversation.
COSA is a group of three to five trained community volunteers that meet
with a Core Member who's someone returning to the community after incarceration.
They agree to meet for at least one year for about an hour to an hour-and-a-half a week.
Also, depending on the needs of the COSA or the individual in the COSA,
there could be additional get-togethers, phone calls, you know,
going out to do social activities like bowling.
And the COSA, the circle of support and accountability,
supports the crime member through reentry and beyond.
Ideally, the planning starts about three months before the person is released.
And when the person is released into the community,
particularly if they don't have any family or friends around,
the COSA can be really instrumental to just sort of being a supportive group thing.
Well, we want you back here.
We're excited to have you here and we're going to be here for you whenever you need us.
If we're going back and talking about needs in the restorative justice context,
the COSA initially can really meet a person's need for belonging
and connection and support among other needs.
And as part of the acronym, there's accountability,
and the COSA holds the Core Member, who's again the person who's returning,
accountable for fulfilling their reentry plan, which involves stuff from, you know,
finding housing, finding appointments.
All the way, to addressing the restorative justice questions about who was harmed
and what they can do to make things better.
The COSA also holds the person accountable to living appropriately in the community.
You know, being safe, being a contributing member of society, and managing things
like their violence that could put other folks in the community at risk.
And again, we talked about restorative justice questions
and try to do some restorative justice work in the COSA.
>> Drew: Wait.
I lost my screen a second.
Hold on. Oh, there I am.
Okay. Sorry about that.
>> Mel: Sure.
So a couple things that we think
about when we're doing COSA?s is accountability is a goal, not a punishment.
That's a quote I really like that our former coordinator mentioned
when she was doing a training.
Now especially since a lot of accountability is based on the Core Member's plans, you know,
how he or she hopes to live well in the community.
It's really about us holding folks accountable
to what their own goals are and it's not a punishment.
Another quote that I really like that's from a Canadian Correctional Services training
on COSA is the goal of COSA members is not to pass judgment, but to articulate standards.
You could think about that and see what means to you.
A couple other things about COSA?s and then we'll open it up to our guests.
When applicable the Core Member's probation officer and others in their community
of care can be involved in the COSA.
That could also mean, you know, sex offender, therapist, a landlord and other people
that are involved in the Core Member's life who could really sort of band together
to make the reintegration as successful as possible,
and with as much communication and transparency as possible.
And also with the guidance of the coordinator, the COSA can facilitate conferences
or meetings for prospective parties.
This means we can do restorative activities like victim-offender dialogues,
or family group conferences that involve other folks that have some sort of stake
in the offense and whatever obligations were created from that offense.
So I'm going to turn it over to [inaudible] continue.
And also our guest Jevon, who is a participant in the COSA
and has been for a number of years here.
Right? Yes.
And also Karen who is a corrections officer in our local office
and has been working with us for over a year as well.
So we're just going to ask a couple questions, and if you could please hold your questions
until we're done with this portion that would be great.
So my first.
>> Zack: Would you introduce?
Would you introduce our guests again, Mel?
>> Mel: Why don't you guys introduce yourselves the way you want to introduce yourselves.
>> Jevon: My name is Jevon Baskin.
I'm a member of [inaudible] who was started justice [inaudible].
>> Zack: We're going to have to ask Jevon to speak up please.
>> Jevon: All right.
My name is Jevon [inaudible].
I guess you could say that I'm the Core Member of a COSA panel in Brattleboro, Vermont.
>> Drew: Great.
Welcome.
>> Karen: My name is Karen Hague, and I am actually his probation officer
at the local Brattleboro Department of Corrections Probation office.
>> Drew: Great.
Welcome.
>> Mel: Jevon, I want to ask you first, what has your experience been like working with COSA?
>> Jevon: It's first off like [inaudible] like from COSA panel,
like I see them as like my safety net.
Like [inaudible] COSA, I've known for.
I was involved in the judicial system.
Yes.
[ Scuffling noise ]
[ Beeps ]
And an experience.
>> Mel: Let me ask a more specific question.
What are some of the challenges that you've worked through with your COSA?
[ Silence ]
>> Money? I don't know.
Maybe.
>> Karen: Yes, it was [inaudible].
Karen suggests to talk about using the COSA?s to work on working with Karen.
>> Jevon: You know, I guess like I haven't really had, like, any real major issues
with my COSA thanks to this, you know.
Like since I've been a part of the COSA panel, like I know Mel talked
about goals and so forth and so on.
I've had some detailed goals to start out with, like I had set in my mind like even before,
you know, I was ever, you know, involved in a COSA panel.
Those such as getting specific goals, such as getting a job
that paid over $10.00 an hour, you know.
I got that.
You know, and a vehicle, you know.
I got that.
In fact, I got the exact vehicle that I wanted, you know.
Getting my license back.
We're still.
Right now, we're still working on a housing situation.
I'm not even worried about that, you know.
I try to stay optimistic in the sense that, you know,
I just believe that everything's going to come together for me.
And I guess the COSA panel, my COSA panel,
[inaudible] without yanking their chain they've been my safety net, you know.
They've been, you know, my back and panel.
Like me as an individual, you know, always trying to look
on the brightest side of things, you know.
Like it's even easier for me to do that, like with someone, like, supporting me.
>> Drew: Can I ask, what is the housing situation now?
>> Jevon: The housing situation right now.
Originally when I got out of prison I.
They, my COSA panel, actually got me linked up with a local landlord in town
who gave me a discounted rent off of an apartment, which, you know, he was fixing up.
And the deal was I was supposed to be helping me.
But right now ever since then it's kind of been shaky where it's been like money involved,
you know, trying to save up money for an apartment.
I've been dig [assumed spelling] in the apartment,
but I had a shady landlord who didn't maintain it properly.
And I had to move out because it was a health hazard.
And right now it's been like jumping from couch to couch,
basically living with the home mates and so forth and so on.
So I mean it's a shaky housing situation, but you know, I know again,
you know, everything's going to work out.
And I guess you could say one of the things that my COSA panel does,
like they help me with budgeting, you know.
We talk about, you know, money issues, prospective apartments, you know, in the area.
You know, they.
A lot of them have connections that I don't, you know.
And so yeah.
>> Drew: Thanks for that.
Why don't we.
Everyone here as stated from the probation officer,
then we'll get to a couple questions from our attendees.
>> Mel: Sure.
Yes, I was just going to ask Karen to describe her relationship with the Justice Center.
And how COSA impacts the work, she does.
>> Karen: Well, in the beginning I'll admit it was a little bit rough.
Working for the Corrections, we tend
to be a little bit suspicious of anybody trying to help us.
[ Laughter ]
But through a lot of work, a lot of dialogue, we were able to all get on the same page of music.
And since then it's that their help.
I have currently two Core Members, two probation members that are Core Members.
And one person I basically have a date in my mind that they'd probably be back in jail
by just because of past supervision histories and psychiatric issues.
And this person is not only still out,
but is actually doing very, very well within the community.
And what it's allowed me to do is to really be able to focus on this person's treatment and,
you know, more of the correctional type view issues.
Whereas different things like esteem building, understanding accountability,
learning about responsibility, learning how to simply socialize.
All those things that normally I just don't have the time to do, the COSA was able to work
with me and work with this person to make happen.
I think to be honest with you, the only reason the person's still
on the street now is because he has a COSA.
>> Mel: I want to.
Drew, if it's okay, I want to ask one more question before we open it up.
Is that all right?
>> Drew: Sure.
>> Mel: Okay.
I want to ask both Jevon and Karen what accountability means
to them in the COSA context.
>> Jevon: Basically accountability to me basically means how your word, your standards,
your beliefs on how to, you know, what's.
I don't know.
It's just like sticking to it.
Responsibility.
>> Karen: And I'd have to say I pretty much second that.
And it's really about not just the accountability to the laws,
the probation orders that are out there.
But it means that they are.
That through this accountability they're really paying attention to their own needs in order
to make it so that they're less likely to reoffend.
As well as looking at the community's needs to reintegrate and not be that person walking
down the street that everybody needs to point out.
That through their actions they're proving that they can hold true to the social norms and laws.
>> Mel: Thanks, guys.
Well, I guess it's question time.
>> Drew: Yes.
If you want to unmute your phone and you have a question for Mel or Zack
or our guest panelists, let's hear them.
>> Zack: Guess we explained it too well.
[ Laughter ]
>> Drew: Any questions for our panelists on the presentation?
>> One of the questions, and I don't recall who, the first person who was talking about COSA.
But I was wondering how you were measuring or have you gotten to a point
yet where the program [inaudible] that you can measure your outcomes
as to how well the program is being recognized by the community.
And how that the offenders are coming out of that COSA.
And generally how long do they stay in the program?
>> Mel: Okay.
I heard a couple different questions in there.
I think I want to make sure I'm hearing you right.
But one of them is about how we're basically reporting this or measuring outcomes.
And the other one is.
>> Right. Yes.
>> Mel: Is how long folks are sticking with the program?
>> Yes.
>> Mel: Okay.
To answer your first question, that is a toughie because we actually haven't been around for.
We've only been doing restorative reentry for about two years.
But throughout that time, we have been reporting to the State Department
of Corrections with our numbers of folks.
But the numbers are low.
You know, they are only about five people or so doing COSA?s at any given time.
We're not talking big numbers here.
>> Okay. And then.
>> Mel: Brattleboro.
I'm sorry.
Brattleboro.
>> Am I talking loud enough so you can hear?
>> Mel: Yes.
I also turned up the volume as well.
>> Okay. Yes.
So did I. I was just reading about this program called Critical Resistance,
which is a nationwide program where they have that same concept
where they want to quit building prisons.
Well, maybe not the same mission.
But the concept is to quit building prisons.
And I was wondering if that's something that maybe, you would be interested
in connecting with, to build your program?
>> Mel: Well, thank you for the recommendation.
I've heard of Critical Resistance and that's definitely something we would look into.
I definitely see our mission as, you know,
I'm not necessarily smashing the state per se, but coming up with alternatives.
And I certainly believe that most people can do well
in this culture who are currently incarcerated.
>> I do too.
>> Mel: And your other question was about how long folks participate.
>> Yes.
>> Mel: And since we've only been around for two years I can say
in our anecdotal experience anywhere most from, you know,
two years that relationship is still going on from the very beginning.
So it can go up to two years.
We ask that people stay on for a year, but after that, they can stay or go.
And there have been a couple instances where it really hasn't work out.
Either the Core Member hasn't engaged, or there have been other sorts of personal problems.
But no matter what, if we decided to end the COSA there's a collective conversation
about how, why, what happens next.
>> Good. Thank you.
>> Mel: Thank you.
>> I had a question.
>> Mel: Sure.
>> A couple things.
One, just for clarification the actual offenders who are returning
to the community are the Core Members.
Meaning the VISTA AmeriCorps members?
>> Mel: No.
You know, someone.
I think Drew predicted that one might come up.
No. Core is C-O-R-E as in the core of an apple.
>> Okay.
>> Kind of thing.
So when I'm talking about Core Members I'm talking
about four million incarcerated individuals who's coming back to be
on a COSA with other community members.
>> Okay. And is this an AmeriCorps program at all?
>> Mel: We do utilize AmeriCorps volunteers, but it's not an AmeriCorps-based program.
I actually was a VISTA when I came here, and I was active with VISTA.
But that's.
>> Drew: Yes.
It's more about AmeriCorps and VISTA program at this point was Zack's contribution.
>> Got it.
Got it. Okay.
And then my second question was the Core Members, am I to assume they're involved
in developing and performing restorative justice projects?
>> Mel: Sure.
Yes.
>> What are examples of some of those type of projects?
>> Mel: Great question.
One example is we do this program, and I don't know if Jacque Austin is
on right now from Madison Urban Ministry.
But we inherited a program from Madison Urban Ministry called The Returning Prisoner
Simulation where people get to do a simulation of walking in the shoes
of a person who's being released from prison.
And also get to walk in the shoes of the service providers during that experience.
And we had one [inaudible] participate in that simulation.
He acted the role of a probation officer and also spoke
at the end about his experience of reentry.
And what it was was a really I think empathy-building exercise for him.
A way to understand what it felt like to be in someone else's shoes.
And we think it may be built up his capacity to work with Karen, and she's nodding.
And also, you know, giving him the opportunity to share his story of the offense can be viewed
as a at least somewhat restorative activity of, you know, educating others,
giving back to the communities or sharing information.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Mel: You're welcome.
>> Drew: We probably have time for one more question if there's one.
>> I do. I have a question.
>> Drew: Please go ahead.
>> I'm part of the reentry process here in the State of Missouri, which is different
from the program that you guys are doing in the sense of involving the victim and the offender.
Ours is pretty much focusing on trying to have the offender successful in the community.
Do you guys work in that direction?
I guess my big question is in working with the offenders, and I know you're trying
to have them be responsible for the offense that they have committed.
I know the one gentleman talked about the assistance with the rent.
My question is, if you do something like that do you help them at all with issues
that involve the state child support office?
>> Mel: Well, is your question particularly about child support?
Or are you asking about whether it's more offender-centered than we make it out to be?
>> It's about you would deal with the offenders that are coming
out that have substantial child support.
>> Mel: Right.
Well, we don't.
We generally don't provide monetary support.
That's one thing.
>> Right.
>> Mel: And I think to answer your question of the ways that we end up being most helpful
with something like that are, you know, first off always first trying
to empower the Core Member to use his own assets and resources
to come up with this own solutions.
Of course, it comes to a point sometimes where that can't be possible.
And as Jevon was saying, the folks in his circle are people
who are well connected in the community.
And can use their pull and connection to help people deal with stuff like that.
You know, I'm sure you're working with some folks who come out
and don't have very good reading skills or writing skills.
And that might be a factor for dealing with agencies in helping with volunteers can help
out is really just actually doing that work alongside them.
I don't know if that is addressing your question.
>> So, you don't necessarily have Vermont state agencies in this particular program.
>> Mel: Not at the moment.
I think ideally, when the reentry program was created that was part of the idea.
And it's really something that I'd like to work towards.
But there are.
The only really formal relationship we have is with the Department of Corrections right now.
>> Okay.
>> Mel: Thanks for asking.
>> Drew: There's a question on the chat board that says, do you do any advertising
to the community to make them aware of your programs?
>> Mel: I'll let Zack [inaudible] about that since he's a VISTA.
>> Zack: Well, thank you to whoever asked the question.
And yes, we.
Since we are so community and volunteer driven, we are often out at events
and holding information sessions to explain the value of our program and the importance
of having community voices represented at the table.
And we also do news releases and, you know, radio shows and TV events to explain our work
and really put our value out there to the community.
:
[ Rustling sounds ]
[ Beeps ]
>> Drew: That sounds great.
I'm going to give the last.
Oops. If I can I'm going to try the last slide so that.
Can't do it.
All right.
The last slide just has the information for Zack and Mel if you have.
If you're interested in communicating with them further.
>> Zack: Cool.
>> Drew: So there's the.
That's the contact info for Mel Motel and Zack Trent, the VISTA in this program.
And just one headline is that I'm going to send an evaluation
to everybody who was on the call today.
And if you would be kind, enough to take a moment to give me your feedback on that
so we can improve these as we go along and I'd appreciate that.
Any last questions before we have to turn it off?
I'm going to take that as it's time to end, so I'm going to just thank in-depth our two guests,
and then our two presenters Mel Motel and Zack Trent
from the Brattleboro Community Justice Center
who did a wonderful job to prepare this for us today.
And also did a wonderful job in presenting and I'm really pleased and very appreciative
of their efforts in this on behalf of the reentry program here.
So Mel and Zack, thanks so much.
>> Mel: Thanks, Drew.
>> Zack: Yes.
Thanks for the opportunity.
>> Drew: Please relay our thanks to your guests as well.
>> Karen: We so thank you.
>> Drew: We appreciate that.
We're going to have another webinar in a couple weeks or even less than a few weeks on.
And that's on the Center for Community Safety out of Salem.
And they've done a 12-city VISTA case study initiative.
A case study on the 12-city reentry initiative and I'll advertise that in a few days.
But I wanted to give you a heads up about that and look for that as our next webinar.
So [inaudible] to those who were able to join us today and to our presenters and our guests.
Thanks again and I'll close it at this time.
Thanks very much.
>> Zack: Thank you everyone.
>> Mel: Good-bye.
[ Closing down lines ]
[ Silence ]