Mike Daly, a peer coach at Turning Point Center in Rutland, facilitates a recovery group meeting with residents of Marble Valley Correctional Center in Rutland on Wednesday, May 29. Photo by Tiffany Tan/VTDigger
RUTLAND — Over coffee Wednesday, five men held at the Marble Valley Correctional Center talked about how to get away from criminal thinking.
Armed with worksheets from visiting addiction recovery coaches Mike Daly and Lewis Nielson, prison residents discussed situations that could ignite their anger and trigger violent behavior. They discussed the possible consequences of such behavior, including arrest and solitary confinement if in prison, and how they could avoid potentially explosive situations.
“I can vent to you about the shit I’m going through,” said Eric Sardo, 34, who faces drug charges and accusations of violating conditions of probation.
“I calmed down,” said Coy Hill, 42, who is serving time for multiple felonies while being prosecuted on charges including robbery and grand larceny. “I have to help myself, so I don’t keep doing this.”
Men are the last participants in addiction. recovery group meetings in Marble Valley, which Rutland Turning Point recovery center introduced in 2016. Several former participants told VTDigger last year how weekly meetings, as well as individualized recovery coaching, have helped them find sobriety and rebuild their lives outside prison walls. .
Now recovery training leaders are working to organize regular group meetings at all Vermont correctional facilities, after the state Legislature this year provided $1.56 million so people in the correctional system can receive evidence-based recovery support. community.
Of the total amount, lawmakers gave the Department of Corrections $500,000 for recovery group meetings and training sessions. Isaac Dayno, a department executive overseeing the project, said the funds will go to six community recovery centers that will administer services at the six state prisons: Chittenden Regional (South Burlington), Marble Valley (Rutland), Northeast Correctional. Complex (St. Johnsbury), North State (Newport), Northwest State (City of St. Albans) and South State (Springfield).
Five residents of Marble Valley Correctional Center in Rutland attend a recovery group meeting on Wednesday, May 29. Photo by Tiffany Tan/VTDigger
Another $1.06 million will benefit Vermont’s 12 recovery centers and one recovery residence, said Gary De Carolis of the Recovery Partners of Vermont network. The money, which would also flow through the corrections department, would allow facilities to provide recovery support to people who have just been released and those on probation or parole, as well as prison residents.
The corrections department has tapped Tracie Hauck, director of the Turning Point Center in Rutland, to develop a manual to guide peer recovery coaches in this specialized work. In June, it plans to formally begin training recovery coaches in Newport, followed by those in Burlington, with the goal of implementing group meetings in its local prisons this year.
“I think we’ll be able to help them determine if they have good enough people to work with,” Hauck said. Recovery coaches in Springfield began holding group meetings at Southern State Correctional last summer.
Eight years after Rutland Turning Point introduced recovery services to Marble Valley, during which the programs received little public recognition or direct government funding, Hauck is pleased that state leaders are now integrating them into the correctional system, especially now that Vermont continues to fight the opioid epidemic. .
“I’d like to think they’re the ones thinking outside the box and needing to do something different,” he said.
A preliminary state report shows that 231 Vermonters died from opioid overdoses last year, the second-highest count since the state established its current tracking system 15 years ago. Surveys show that people just released from prison are some of the most susceptible to fatal overdoses, in part because they misjudge their tolerance for drugs or alcohol after being locked up and lack access to medical care while being incarcerated. released.
Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland. Photo by Tiffany Tan/VTDigger
On any given day, Vermont correctional facilities hold between 1,300 and 1,400 people serving their sentences or awaiting trial. Of the total population, 70% (nearly 1,000 people) receive buprenorphine, a type of medication for opioid use disorder, according to Dayno of the corrections department.
When addiction to other types of substances, such as alcohol and stimulants, is taken into account, he said, national data shows that the affected prison population is around 85%.
VTDigger reported on the successes of Rutland Turning Point’s recovery programs in Marble Valley in May 2023. In September of that year, Corrections Commissioner Nicholas Deml told his staff to prioritize implementing this type of program in coordination with peer recovery counselors, citing the article in a memo.
“Given this proven success and the high strategic importance of the project, I am directing the Department to expand this program model across all DOC facilities,” Deml said in the memo, referring to the Department of Corrections. “This project will start as soon as possible.”
In a recent interview, Deml said introducing community recovery programs in prisons is crucial because it can help incarcerated people rebuild their lives when they return to society.
“We know this is a critical moment,” he said. “They can be successful or face some pretty dire circumstances.”
Recovery centers in cities without prisons would primarily offer support to incarcerated people returning to their communities and those on probation or parole. The idea is that recovery centers across the state will be alerted to potential clients of the correctional system.
Lewis Nielson and Mike Daly, peer coaches at Rutland’s Turning Point Center, facilitate a recovery group meeting with residents of Marble Valley Correctional Center in Rutland on Wednesday, May 29. Photo by Tiffany Tan/VTDigger
Deml said the peer coaching model is especially effective because it is led by people who understand firsthand the difficulty of combating addiction. Most peer recovery coaches have been sober for years due to substance abuse, and some have served time in jail or prison.
“We’ve had to change our thinking: bringing people who were previously incarcerated back into correctional facilities,” the commissioner said. “We’re willing to try things and take an innovative approach.”
In the Marble Valley dining room where the recovery meeting was being held, Daly, the recovery coach, told participants that he understood that people outside prison walls may judge them harshly based on their appearance or their background. penalties. Residents, sitting on metal chairs bolted to the floor, nodded or agreed.
Mike Daly, a peer coach at Turning Point Center in Rutland, facilitates a recovery group meeting with residents of Marble Valley Correctional Center in Rutland on Wednesday, May 29. Photo by Tiffany Tan/VTDigger
Daly, 42, has been sober for 10 years, but before that he used a wide variety of substances for nearly 20 years. He said he has been arrested “too many times” to count, culminating in a felony conviction with a sentence of probation.
The challenge when people put you down, he told the men that morning, is to prove them wrong by exceeding their expectations.
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