13-016 Code Vt. R. 13-130-016-X
Authority: Article 64, Vermont Constitution; VSA Title 28 and Title 13; and the Vermont Rules of Criminal Procedure.
Purpose: To establish, in partnership with the community, a continuum of correctional programs and services whose purpose is to have offenders committed to the Department of Corrections:
* learn about the impact of their crimes on their victims and the community at large;
* restore the victims of their crime; and
* make amends for their criminal conduct by adding value to the community.
Applicability/Accessibility: This policy is applicable to all DOC employees. Anyone may have access to this policy.
Policy statement: Providing the opportunity for offenders to restore the victims of crime and the social injury to the community is an enduring goal of criminal justice. Article 64 of the Vermont Constitution calls for offenders "...to be employed for the benefit of the public or for the reparation of injuries done to private persons..."
For offenders to successfully reintegrate with their communities, the Department recognizes that the offenders themselves must restore the balance of reciprocity disrupted by their criminal behavior. This balance must be restored for the community as a whole as well as for the specific victim of the crime. The offender must make amends for his/her crime.
Direct involvement of the community in sanctioning offenders is essential to that restoration of reciprocity. The community must be involved with the definition of the sanction and with the implementation of the sanction. The community must be involved in determining that the sanction has been fulfilled and that the balance of reciprocity has been restored.
Victims should be involved in the process of restoration to the extent that they are willing and capable. Community representatives involved with the reparative track should focus on the social injury to the well-being of the community.
Accordingly, the Department will establish and administer a continuum of programs for offenders that promote reparation of the community and to the victims of crime. These reparative track programs will reflect the following principles:
Reparative Program Continuum:
The Department will establish correctional programs for offenders under the legal statuses of probation, supervised community sentence, pre-approved furlough and incarceration. Together these programs will form the Reparative Service Track. The reparative programs offered to the courts for sentencing offenders shall be described in the Department's "Sentencing Options Manual".
Administration of the Court and Reparative Program Service Track:
The Department will establish reparative programs for the sanctions of probation, supervised community, sentence, pre-approved furlough and incarceration. Together these programs will form the Reparative Service Track. The reparative programs offered to the courts for sentencing offenders shall be described in the Department's "Sentencing Options Manual."
The Director of Correctional Services shall also develop directives for each of the reparative programs offered in the reparative continuum.
Community Reparation Boards:
Consistent with the principles described above, the Department will establish community boards in each county of the state. Members will be appointed by the Commissioner. Appointments shall, to the extent practicable, encourage diversity, of memberships on each board. The reparative boards will:
The Director of Correctional Services shall develop directives that outline the selection and administration of the reparative boards.
13-016 Code Vt. R. 13-130-016-X