Editor’s note: This commentary is by Julia Maisto, of Burlington, who is a sociology student at UVM and an intern with Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform, a nonprofit educational and advocacy organization.
[T]he Vermont Department of Corrections states in its own vision statement that it aims “to be valued by the citizens of Vermont as a partner in the prevention, research, control, and treatment of criminal behavior.” However, the content of FY 2015’s Facts and Figures report suggests that providing data to the public may not be a priority.
The Facts and Figures report for FY 2014 is a 212-page document containing information and statistics regarding the number of people involved with Corrections (current incarcerated population and the population over time), programs, outcomes, community safety, offender safety and health, and budgetary issues. The Facts and Figures report for FY 2015, on the other hand, is a mere 32 pages in length and omits elements that are of concern both to the community and to researchers.
For example, the FY 2014 Facts and Figures contained extensive data on the racial composition of inmates and persons under field supervision. The data indicates that the number of black and Asian inmates has increased disproportionately relative to the number of white inmates over the course of the past 15 years — meanwhile, the number of white inmates has remained steady. Likewise, in FY 2014, less than 2 percent of Vermonters identified as black while 10.7 percent of the incarcerated population identified as black. Even within those already involved with Corrections, the white population was more likely to be under field supervision than incarcerated, while the black population was more than twice as likely to be incarcerated than under field supervision.
Such data should not go unpublished, as it identifies both strengths and weakness within the system and is critical for public knowledge.
The FY 2015 Facts and Figures document makes no mention of race.
Racial statistics are but one of many of the statistics omitted in the FY 2015 Facts and Figures. Data on gender and income disparities, types of crimes committed and their ramifications, aging inmates, policies within the system, and community safety outcomes all appear in the 2014 document but are missing in the consolidated FY 2015 version. Such data should not go unpublished, as it identifies both strengths and weakness within the system and is critical for public knowledge.
Though the 2015 document does note that it has been consolidated to include only the information “most relevant to the department’s operation,” it mentions no intent or route of action to return to the more comprehensive Facts and Figures of years past. While staff resources vary from year to year and compiling such statistical analysis is no easy undertaking, the task cannot go ignored. It’s important that the state makes the Facts and Figures a priority within the coming years. The information represented in these statistics has implications not only for those directly involved with Corrections but for everyone in the state, and the responsibility lies heavily with taxpaying citizens to engage in the legislative process and demand funding for such necessary data collection and reporting within public institutions.
