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Your spouse, or loved one, or sibling, or child, has an encounter with the law. It can happen, doesn’t matter why. What then begins is a journey through our criminal justice system. The experience for the folks on the outside can be frightening, and is always hard, and frustrating, constantly disappointing, and is heartbreakingly real. The reality so stunning in the not-what-you-expected, or thought-you-knew or understood about the system ­— only to be horrified by the actual facts. From the moment of arraignment to the first days of incarceration to trying to navigate their draconian rules just to be a parent or loved one and to attempt to protect your loved one from the pitfalls of the system ­— and to try to work with the system — only to be slapped in the face with the reality that the system is broken. And they want it that way. (more…)

Last Monday morning, David Mitchell, a 46-year-old man from Rutland, complained to prison guards that he couldn’t breathe and needed urgent medical treatment. According to multiple accounts from other people incarcerated in the same block, the guard told Mitchell to stop complaining and go back to his cell. When Mitchell kept begging to be taken to the hospital, he was threatened with being sent “to the hole” – solitary confinement – if he didn’t stop. Within an hour, he died in his cell. (more…)

A Vermont Just Justice member wrote this letter to the Vermont Senate Judiciary committee in support of S.119,

An act relating to a public health response to drug use

Dear Senators,

Our organization, Vermont Just Justice, is writing to you in regard to the recent bill sent to your committee. This bill is intended to decriminalize the personal use of drugs that are currently classified as a criminal offense. The legislative wording states a clear understanding of:
• drug misuse as a public health crisis with fatal overdoses significantly rising
• criminal justice response ineffective and expensive
• criminal legal response detrimental to individuals, families, people of color, or those living in poverty
• criminal legal ramifications continue to keep people with addictions in poverty, and adversely affects their children, and families by inhibiting housing, education, benefits and income
• increases needless incarceration
• addiction is a disease classified in medicine as a chronic brain disorder that responds to treatment versus punishment (more…)

Bag of Bones

The guard dragged Frank feet-first,
as if he were
one more Saturday night special,
just another drunk destined for the tank.
Fifteen minutes of chest compressions
got the COs winded by turns
and the old man no further from death. (more…)

The Vermont legislature is now in session. The session runs from the beginning of January through April, and works on a biennium system. That means that bills that are introduced have two sessions, or two years, to pass — or not pass. Sometimes bills are resubmitted in the next biennium.

We are approaching “crossover,” meaning that bills that have passed one chamber now head to the other chamber to be considered. This happens each year after town meeting day. As we approach this important time in our legislative cycle, we’ll share with you some of the bills we’re concerned about. (more…)