Code of Vermont Rules › Agency 13 - AGENCY OF HUMAN SERVICES › Sub-Agency 130 - DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS › Chapter 016 - COURT AND REPARATIVE SERVICE TRACK › Section 13 130 016 - COURT AND REPARATIVE SERVICE TRACK

Current through June, 2024
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:
1. The community
				is the primary facilitator in the reparative programs.
2. Programs focus on the repair of social
				injury.
3. Debt/liability to the
				victim is recognized.
4. Offender
				accountability is defined as understanding the impact of criminal actions and
				how to make things right.
5.
				Restitution is a means of restoring both parties through reconciliation and
				restoration.
6. The stigma of crime
				is removable through restorative action.
7. Participants are to be involved wherever
				possible.
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:
1. Define prescribed
				elements of the reparative program for each offender;
2. Meet with offenders to evaluate their
				cooperation with the program;
3.
				Sanction offenders for failure to comply with program elements; and
4. Advise the Department and local criminal
				justice agencies on the efficacy of reparative programs.
The Director of Correctional Services shall develop
				  directives that outline the selection and administration of the reparative
				  boards.
Statutory Authority: 13
				  V.S.A.; 28 V.S.A.