Restorative justice: Future funding unclear

Put a person under correctional supervision and you hold them accountable for that time period. Teach a person to own up to their actions and you help them for a lifetime.

While that may be taking liberties with an old proverb, it’s a goal true of Vermont’s community justice centers.

For two decades, Vermont has attempted to take a restorative approach to low-level crime and offenses through its community justice centers. Today, there are 20 centers statewide, five of which are in Chittenden County. But the Department of Corrections, which helps fund the centers, could be facing potential budget constraints in Fiscal Year 2021.

What the centers offer

The community justice centers focus on restorative practices rather than punitive measures.

“We know from studies here in Vermont ... that something very impactful happens when people are held accountable to the actual ways that their behaviors impacted others,” said Derek Miodownik, restorative and community justice executive.

According to Miodownik, restorative practices dignify crime perpetrators by holding them to the same standards as all community members.

In South Burlington, restorative efforts offered by the centers include community dialogues about local issues; connecting crime victims with resources; conflict resolution for neighborly disputes; helping local schools adopt restorative practices; and a restorative panel program in which low-level crime offenders resolve issues by speaking directly with the victim.

According to Miodownik, restorative justice programs have helped decrease the number of Vermonters on probation.

“We can clearly see, as the number of cases go up for folks who are being sent directly by local police [to justice centers], a correlated decline in the number of cases that are being sent from the court as part of a probation order,” he said.

The centers help accomplish this by providing clear expectations and support to help perpetrators meet social conduct standards.

“The beauty of this process is that it holds people accountable more immediately than if they went through court; it doesn’t require additional supervision through corrections,” Miodownik said.

But there are a growing number of cases being referred to the centers. For a while, the volume of cases was within Corrections’ budget, now, the increase in demand, among other demands on the department’s budget may pose a challenge. Plus, Miodownik said, the centers put Corrections in a place of helping fund a population that isn’t under its supervision.

“It frames this larger system question,” he said. “‘What is the bandwidth for [Corrections] to keep up with the increasing opportunity to prevent folks from being placed on supervision when the population who are making their way onto supervision … are increasingly complex and representing higher risk and higher need?’”

Funding trouble?

The community justice centers are funded through multiple channels including in-kind payments from municipalities and funds from the Department of Corrections.

In recent years, Corrections has been challenged with near-level funding and increasing financial demands. And while the FY21 budget is not yet complete, the department anticipates there could be funding challenges again this year.

“There’s really nothing definitive about the larger funding that accounts for the 20 [Community Justice Centers],” Miodownik said. “But we know that there are pressures on the department.”

Those pressures stem in part, from the opiate crisis and costs associated with providing Medically Assisted Treatment for inmates, he said.

According to Corrections Financial Director Matt D’Agostino, the department has also made an additional $1.3 million budget request to help cover the cost of several out-of-state inmates. Corrections had anticipated several out-of-state prisoners could return to Vermont correctional facilities during FY21, however they will now need to remain at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Mississippi.

“Not getting these funds would certainly be a significant additional strain,” D’Agostino told The Other Paper.

Plus, referrals to the state’s community justice centers are growing.

“The only way we can do more next year with the same amount that we have this year is to identify where there may be opportunities for increased efficiencies,” Miodownik said. “We don’t have any definitive reduction and/or the allocation plan for next year, but we do have to look at all sites, including Chittenden County, at whether or not there is a way to retain the quality and the capacity while realizing savings.”

Finding a solution?

Locally, the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission has facilitated early discussions about how to create efficiencies in the five Chittenden County Community Justice Centers, Miodownik said.

Currently there are five separate grants, municipal governing boards, finance employees and administrators who manage the Chittenden County centers. But according to Miodownik, it’s not unusual to have one point-of-administration to oversee a regional service.

“There’s plenty of precedent for a single point of administration to provide highly personalized services throughout an entire region,” he said. “If we can create administrative efficiencies it opens up the opportunity to redistribute some of those savings in a way to keep up with increased demand.”

And Miodownik is hopeful Corrections will allow the regional planning commission time to conduct its full process.

“I certainly think it behooves us all to give that process the time it takes,” he said.

Plus, he added, the government doesn’t move “nimbly” when it comes to changing grants. Absent a large reduction in grant funds, Miodownik does not foresee a change in funding or structure in FY21.

“What we know is that there’s increased demand and all things being equal, that’s a challenge,” Miodownik said.