Barre Mayor Thomas Lauzon. VTD/Josh Larkin
Susan Bartlett’s mission on Monday was to get the Barre task force on offender reentry back on track. Last week’s meeting wandered from conversations about a $591,000 budget to soul-searching about the purpose of the group. Bartlett, Gov. Peter Shumlin’s point person on corrections issues, attempted to push the task force toward a proposal the administration could support.
Tim Bombardier, Barre’s police chief, proposed a plan last week that included programs for community members in crisis, including “rapid arraignment,” a process through which repeat offenders can be referred to community justice in lieu of traditional corrections methods, and conflict management. Bartlett urged the task force to remember their initial task.
“A lot of people are interested in rapid arraignment…” she said, “but your first goal has always been to deal with the folks coming out of corrections. That’s not rapid arraignment.”
While Paul Poirier, chair of the task force and a Barre City councilor, agreed with Bartlett on that score, their views diverged from that point on.
Bartlett pushed hard for intensive case management. She said connecting people with case managers who can assist them with housing, employment and other aspects of re-entry would provide the best results for the city. Poirier and Bombardier hoped to get state funding for a public space and staff to operate an expanded model of Barre’s existing community justice center.
“What is your skin in the game?” asked Bartlett. She emphasized the importance of “community buy-in” for a successful public justice center.
“If we were made of money, you could have it all at once,” she said, “but we are definitely not made of money.”
Frustrated, Poirier asked Bartlett to name a dollar figure the state might be able to contribute. Her response was direct: $200,000.
“As long as you can show from the beginning that you’ve saved that much money … the money will be there,” Bartlett said.
Earlier in the meeting, Bartlett told the task force that no money was guaranteed. The surest way to get state funding, she said, was to generate results before the budget issue comes up.
“I think you’ve come up with a lot of ideas of things that you can do that don’t have to cost any money,” she said. Using existing community justice center employees to work with landlords and arrange housing and connecting soon-to-be-released offenders to community support services before they get out are cost-free activities that will deliver results, she said. Programs that get results, she said, are more likely to get funding.
Tensions arose at the meeting once Bartlett named a number.
Bartlett suggested budgeting the $200,000 to hire two case managers who could work full time connecting reentering offenders to support services and providing support to their families. The details were still unclear at the end of the meeting.
“I asked them to say how they would spend $200,000,” Bartlett said. “There’s your target. See if you would spend it; what do you want to do, and how does it all wrap together, and how does it make sense?”
She said the administration wanted to see a collaborative effort, tying existing services together and filling remaining holes.
Poirier and Rep. Tess Taylor, D-Barre City, planned to head up two sub-groups to meet over the next two weeks and develop a plan for funding and execution of a public space and a comprehensive plan for the project. Poirier’s group is tasked with finding a space and Taylor’s with defining the new service center.
“Space and what [the program] is are two things we need to focus on,” said Poirier at the end of the meeting.
The task force will reconvene at their new meeting space in the Barre Public Safety building at 4 p.m. Monday, Aug. 22 and report on the work done by the subgroups, then put together a complete plan to bring to Barre’s city council and the state.
“One of the big things I wanted to accomplish today,” said Poirier, “was we have a number we can work around.”
