VT- Town cool to inmate plan

12-24-2008 Vermont:

BENNINGTON — BROC is planning to apply for a grant with the Vermont Department of Corrections to help offenders make the transition from prison back to the community in Bennington, an idea which was met with some skepticism by the Select Board at its Monday meeting.

Maryann St. John, BROC's county supervisor for community services in Bennington County, said BROC was hoping the Select Board would sign a letter supporting the program.

According to St. John, officials at BROC, formerly known as the Bennington-Rutland Opportunity Council, want to put together a program that would provide short-term housing subsidies of up to a year at scattered sites within the community for people who are about to released from prison.

St. John said it would not be an early release program or open to people classified as sex offenders.

BROC would hire a half-time case manager to oversee people in the program and offer help in finding a landlord and a job, under the proposal.

"This will enhance the amount of supervision currently offered and thereby enhance community safety," she said.

BROC would also contract with United Counseling Services of Bennington County for therapy dealing with problems like anger management, mental health and substance abuse.

Other expected partners are the Department of Labor, the Center for Restorative Justice and the Greater Bennington Interfaith Community Services.

St. John told the Select Board that the program would only be open to Bennington residents, which raised some questions.

Bennington Town Manager Stuart Hurd said he was concerned that people from Rutland or nearby New York or Massachusetts towns who were arrested in Bennington would be released in the town whether they had ties to the community or not.

"My experience with the Department of Corrections and its release of offenders back into a community, it happens that the offenders were caught in that community or happened to be transients living in the community at that time, not necessarily residents of that community," he said.

Select Board member Jason Morrissey asked whether BROC intended to look at other towns in the county as homes for former inmates.

Other Select Board members said they were concerned because St. John did not know the amount of the grant for which BROC planned to apply.

According to the Vermont Department of Corrections Web site, the program is expected to be funded with $1.2 million in the budget for fiscal year 2010.

The Select Board took no action on the proposal. Select Board Chairwoman Lodie Colvin said that while she had invited BROC to talk to the board at Monday's meeting, she had also told them that because the topic was not on the agenda, there would be no action taken.

Applications to the Department of Corrections are due Dec. 30. ..News Source.. by Patrick McArdle