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Incarcerated Women's Initiative Executive Summary
BENDING THE CURVE ON THE NUMBER OF WOMEN INCARCERATED IN VERMONT WITHOUT COMPROMISING PUBLIC SAFETY, January 1, 2007
THE ISSUE: The past 10 years has seen over a five-fold increase in the incarcerated women’s population (from 31 in November of 1996 to 176 in November of 2006); our current capacity is to house 155 women. The human and financial consequences of the continuation of this trend are significant for the women, for their children and families, and for Vermont. The cost to the state to house these women will be substantial and will further divert funds into Corrections and away from efforts that can better support healthy children, families, and individuals in the community.
THE CHARGE: In May of 2005, then-AHS Secretary Mike Smith charged the Agency of Human Services (AHS) with mobilizing its resources and providing leadership to communities to change this escalating trend. He challenged the Agency to reduce the number of women incarcerated in Vermont without compromising public safety, and directed all departments and offices of the Agency to work together with other stakeholders, with regional partnerships, and with recipients of human services to address this issue from a statewide perspective. AHS Field Directors were charged with mobilizing partners to tackle the issue in every part of Vermont. This approach marks a significant departure from past methods used to tackle this kind of problem. Historically, prison overcrowding has been seen as a Corrections problem. The reorganization of AHS over the past years has been based on the premise that the human condition is complex and that the only way to radically address negative trends is by mobilizing our communities and the resources of AHS. There is a widespread belief that Vermont can change this trend without compromising public safety
THE GOAL: To dramatically alter the current escalating trend in incarceration of women in Vermont by flattening the trend line, and ultimately achieving a 15% reduction in the average daily number of women in prison in Vermont. To achieve this outcome, we must make progress on the following variables, and we must achieve these objectives through greater gender sensitivity in our approaches:
v Reducing the flow of women into the broader Corrections system;
v Reducing the number of women who are incarcerated for violations of probation and other forms of community Corrections supervision;
v Reducing the number of women being sentenced and detained by the courts;
v Reducing the length of stay in incarceration; and
v Increasing the rate of successful re-entry for women offenders.
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Since the Fall of 2005 both state and district efforts have begun to shape and strengthen our system to prevent women from incarceration.
v AHS has implemented a Benefits Enrollment and Restoration program to ensure that women inmates are enrolled in health, economic and social security disability programs upon their release, in order to provide stability and support for women when they return to the community.
v Drug Enforcement, Treatment, Education and Recovery (DETER) funding has resulted in the development of innovative community based programs to provide holistic substance abuse treatment with case management services for women in the Chittenden, Rutland and Central Vermont districts.
v DETER funding has also enabled the development of “Tapestry II,” a residential program for women at risk for re-incarceration as a consequence of substance abuse that will be opening as an expansion of the DOC Tapestry program in early 2007 with an additional 16 beds.
v Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program staff have been meeting monthly with a work group of substance abuse treatment providers on women’s issues as they pertain to treatment, including creating a set of standards specific to women’s treatment and establishing recommendations for gender responsive screening/assessment tools.
v The majority of treatment providers in the state, both outpatient and residential facilities, are using Lisa Najavits Seeking Safety curriculum, an evidence-based gender-responsive curriculum.
v Across the state AHS Field Services and other agency and community partners are developing promising and coordinated case planning approaches addressing the multi-dimensional issues facing women and their immediate family. Examples of these developments include:
· Service coordination teams providing treatment planning and case management for women at risk of violating their conditions of release while on probation and furlough.
· Reentry teams of treatment providers working in the prisons to ensure the appropriate package of services and supports are in place upon release.
· Community Response Teams specifically serving women using substances that are pregnant or parenting.
v The Vermont Research Partnership has begun a multi-year research project focusing on and supporting the IWI, and began research in the summer of 2006.
v Transitional housing opportunities for women have increased. DOC is funding transitional housing placements for women including 4 at Aerie House in St. Johnsbury, 4 at the Phoenix House Rise program in Brattleboro, and 5 in central Vermont.
v AHS is providing funding and working collaboratively with the Northern Lights Consortium Transitional Housing Project in Burlington to develop a program housing 10 women that is expected to open in the spring of 2007.
v The AHS Director of Housing and Deputy Commissioner of Field Services are working with the Vermont State Housing Authority on opportunities to apply for additional housing voucher funds through the Shelter Plus Care program. These funds require that case management and supportive services be applied for eligibility.
v Data representing the rates of re-incarceration of women for violations of conditions of release are being regularly analyzed and considered for revisions of DOC policy and practice.
v A Memorandum of Understanding with the Lund Family Center that enables DOC to do a medical/treatment furlough with pregnant women who meet their criteria and with permission of the sentencing judge, to the Lund Family Center prior to reaching her minimum in order to deliver her baby and fully participate in the Lund program.
v The IWI is working closely with Vermont Children’s Aid Society in the design and development of their community-based program working with children and their caregivers impacted by parental incarceration.
v The Mothers and Families United Program, funded by DOC, is offered to mothers at the Dale Women’s Correctional Facility and Southeast State Correctional Facility, and supports and enhances women’s roles as mothers during incarceration. The program offers: case coordination if the Department for Children and Families is involved; therapeutic parenting education and support groups; grief and loss groups; visitation access and mother/child visits; and, reentry planning around parenting issues.
For more information contact
Jill Evans, IWI Project Manager, jille@doc.state.vt.us
Scott Johnson, AHS Field Services, scott.johnson@ahs.state.vt.us
Susan Onderwyzer, DOC Program Services Executive, sonderwy@doc.state.vt.us
