The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The bill takes aim at the causes for the mushrooming prison population and high recidivism -- both of which have led to Vermont's spending more on corrections than higher education. The bill sets new expectations that the Department of Corrections will identify substance-abuse problems early, will expand treatment options especially in the community and will develop housing to help inmates transition from prison to life on the outside.

"We want to make offenders much more likely to succeed," said House Institutions Chairwoman Alice Emmons, D-Springfield. "We will have offenders who will be productive members of the community, who give back to the community instead of being a drain on the community."

This bill, which passed the House on Friday without any dissenting voices after clearing a few procedural and political hurdles, is part of a package of reforms lawmakers are assembling this year.

The House already passed a bill that requires inmates up to age 26 who don't have high school diplomas to attend class to earn that diploma. Education is one of the factors that help offenders succeed rather than return, yet Rep. Jason Lorber, D-Burlington, noted that 90 percent of the youngest inmates never finished high school.

The Senate will take up another facet of correction reform when the Legislature returns from its town meeting break -- a bill that would change probation policies concerning alcohol to focus on treatment rather than punishment. Unless an offender's crime involved substance abuse, probation conditions would no longer include bans on drinking.

Also, public drunks would no longer be put in jail for their safety if they hadn't committed a crime.

The bill also authorized statewide use of electronic monitoring equipment -- another alternative to help alleviate the need to imprison so many people.

The Senate Institutions Committee will include money in the proposed capital budget to pay for renovations needed if the department reorganizes how it used some prison space. A plan under consideration would move women out of the Dale Women's Facility in Waterbury and close it because it is the most expensive prison in the system. Women would be housed at the Northwest Regional Correctional Facility in St. Albans Town. The Southeast Correctional Facility in Windsor, which along with Dale houses female inmates, would become a large work camp.

Many of these correction reform ideas grew from research and a report provided by the Council of State Governments. The House and Senate have divided up the suggestions.

"Once all the parts come together," said Senate Democratic Leader John Campbell, D-Windsor, "we believe very strongly we will have ground-breaking legislation."

The Douglas administration has been working closely with legislators as they develop the package. Jason Gibbs, spokesman for Gov. Jim Douglas, said the work looks good.

Emmons noted that lawmakers are sketching the big picture, but will only fund a small portion. The Department of Corrections must find $600,000 within its $130 million budget to take an array of small steps to enhance identification and treatment of drug and alcohol abuse among offenders.

Lawmakers are banking that these small steps will produce better, less expensive outcomes, resulting in financial savings. The plan is to plow savings into more treatment and transitional housing.

This strategy could save the state $54 million over 10 years, lawmakers say.

"It's a multi-year process," Emmons said. "This is an investment to better people's lives and make our communities safer."

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080301/NEWS0
2/803010326/1007/NEWS02

The DOC website is http://doc.vermont.gov and the report can be found at http://doc.vermont.gov/cost-reduction-plan-is-completed.