Over the past several years, the Vermont Department of Corrections (DOC) has placed increasing emphasis on successful transition to the community.
Many offenders under the care and custody of the Department of Corrections lack the social, cognitive, and work-related skills necessary to succeed in the community. Offenders frequently lack successful work histories and, in some cases, may have never held jobs or paid taxes. Offenders under the care and custody of the DOC often lack the social, cognitive, and work-related skills necessary to succeed as members of the Vermont community.
The cCorrectional environment does not always lend itself to the focused and intentional development of these skills in everyday institutional life, although r. The research clearly indicates that offenders who obtain the necessary skills to find and maintain work have a much higher likelihood of success.
RThe research also suggests more is accomplished when resources are targeted to those offenders with the greatest need. Lastly, research indicates that using a“sStrengths-bBased” approach – focusing on offender strengths and successes– promotes a greater degree of collaboration between staff and offenders and allows for a greater degree of positive influence. The program will primarily target male offenders with LSI scores over 23 and who have a poor work history. Not surprising, the skills necessary to obtain and maintain employment are a related skill set to those necessary to lead a pro-social lifestyle.
In the fall of 2003, Vermont DOC was awarded a three-year federal research and demonstration grant of $1,000,000 from the US Department of Education. These funds originate from the USDE Life Skills for State and Local Prisoners Program (84.255A), which provided financial assistance to establish and operate programs to reduce recidivism by developing and improving adult prisoners’ life skills. The Life Skills Program in Vermont, called the Workforce Development Partnership (WDP), was structured to reach offenders with poor work histories and the highest risk to re-offend (assessed with Level of Service Inventory [LSI] scores over 23).
The WDP is expressly designed to focus attention on the development of social and life skills in every day institutional life by using common language and methodologies in three distinct areas of the participants’ institutional world:
- the living unit – facility unit staff
- the classroom – Community High School of Vermont (CHSVT) faculty
- the work environment – Vermont Offender Work Programs (VOWP) staff
The WDP has been designed to teach offenders fundamental life skills using a unique, holistic approach that immerse program participants in educational, work, and living unit settings that use a strength-based approach that supports offender development. This strength-based approach is built on the understanding and use of 16 aspects of behavioral intelligence, or life skills, that increase the participants’ ability to problem solve effectively. These 16 Habits of Mind are detailed in a series of four books, Habits of Mind: A Developmental Approach, edited by Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick. The Habits of Mind were used to create a curriculum for CHSVT students, as well as training materials in strength-based supervision for faculty and staff working with WPD participants.
The express purpose and design of the Workforce Development Program is to focus attention on the development of social/life skills in every day institutional life by using common language and methodologies in three distinct areas of the offender’s institutional world:
In the offender's living unit (Unit Staff)
In the classroom (CHSVT Faculty)
In VCI work environment (VCI staff)
In essence, offenders will interact with work supervisors, teachers and correctional staff in a focused intentional way. The home, school and work environments, in collaboration, will seek to support and enhance offender social and life skills development by employing the Habits of Mind methodology into how they: model, teach, supervise, communicate and evaluate offenders in their daily lives within the walls of the correctional facilities.
The Grant
INTRODUCTION
Over the past several years, the Vermont Department of Corrections has placed increasing emphasis on successful transition to the community. Research indicates that offenders who have clearly defined transition plans, addressing a multitude of issues/needs to promote and enhance offender success (such as: treatment needs, an appropriate residence, meaningful employment opportunities, education and effective use of leisure time) and more likely to succeed.
Conversely, those offenders who do not have comprehensive transition plans that include the above, can and often do, fall back into “risk patterns” that lead them back to anti-social and/or criminal behaviors. One of the areas that is lacked focused attention in the Department of Corrections is the need to connect or reconnect offenders back into the world of work. In many cases, offenders do not have a successful work history and in some cases, may have never held a job or paid taxes as a member of the Vermont community.
Looking a bit deeper into the issue, we will find that a high percentage of offenders returning to the community after a period of incarceration, lack the work skills necessary to find or maintain a job. A successful worker must have a “headset” or “work ethic” as well as social and work related skills. Traditionally, offender work skills are taught in the Departments “workforce programs” and risk-related cognitive interventions are taught in the Department of Corrections clinical or therapeutic programs, but to date there has never been a specific program
In essence, participants interact with correctional staff, teachers, and work supervisors in a focused and intentional way. By collaboratively using the Habits of Mind, faculty and staff support and enhance participant social and life skills development in their home, school and work environments. Using the common language of the Habits of Mind, the faculty and staff model, teach, supervise, communicate and evaluate participants in their daily lives within the walls of the correctional facilities.
to target an offenders overall “work ethic.”
Focusing on the Workforce Development Program (attitudes, cognitive skills, social skills and specific work skills), that is specifically designed to produce a better worker (and citizens), is designed to support an offenders overall level of “employability” as he or she initially seeks employment in the community and strives to sustain employment over time. Create a better worker and we create a better person. Create a better person and we create the possibility of having a better citizen, who is a valuable member of the workforce, a paying taxpayer and an individual with greater purpose in life.
The grant outlined in this document is an example of the Vermont’s effort to target offenders who have the greatest need - those offenders with the highest risk to re-offend (as assessed by LSI scores) and those who have the worst of work histories. The Vermont Department of Corrections’ Offender Workforce Program, the Community High School of Vermont and Department of Corrections staff should be commended for understanding the need to focus on offender workforce development.
This may be the first time in correctional history that these three entities within the walls of the correctional environment will “team up” to support the offenders personal and professional growth. Special kudos should be given to the Vermont Department of Corrections Offender Work Programs as they have let go of the traditional headset of using offenders with the highest work skills to get the product out and have embraced the need to provide work/learning opportunities to those offenders who need it most. In doing so, they have become more of a player in offender rehabilitation - thanks.
THE HISTORY
In the fall of 2003, Vermont Department of Corrections was awarded a three year federal research/demonstration grant in the amount of $1,000,000 from the US Department of Education. These funds originate from the USDE Life Skills for State and Local Prisoners (84.255A) which provided financial assistance for establishing and operating programs to reduce recidivism through the development and improvement of life skills necessary for reintegration of adult prisoners into society.
The Life Skills Program in Vermont, called the Workforce Development Program by the Department of Corrections, seeks to teach offenders fundamental life skills using a unique, holistic approach that will immerse program participants in educational, work, and living unit settings that use a strength-based approach that supports offender development. This strength-based approach is built on the understanding and integration/utilization of 16 aspects of behavioral intelligence, or life skills, that increase ones ability to problem solve effectively, called Habits of Mind. These Habits of Mind are detailed in a series of four books, Habits of Mind: A Developmental Approach, edited by Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick.
The Department of Corrections was one of 13 grant recipients out of a grant application pool of 115 applicants. DOC was identified as the lead recipient among these 13 for having included a request for funds to teach DOC facility staff, as well as offenders, about the Habits of Mind. Designed to be a research project/demonstration grant, this holistic approach will combine the efforts of trained correctional facility living unit staff, Community High School of Vermont faculty, and Vermont Correctional Industries (VCI) instructors to teach and support the assimilation and utilization of these 16 Habits of Mind by offenders in their living units, school settings and at work.
The three-year federal research/demonstration grant was initially put into practice at three state correctional facilities in at which this integrated approach will take place are Windsor, Newport and St. Albans. Specific living units at Newport and St. Albans wereill designated for the male participants. WDP a living unit to this endeavor. Windsor's living unit specifics for program participants is yet to be determined. The program participants also will also be enrolled in the educational and employment aspects of the program taking classes in the CHSVT classes and workedingforin one of the VOWPCIwork sites (a sheet metal shop in Windsor, a furniture shop in Newport and a print shop in St. Albans).
The Workforce Development Program plans to initially enroll 84 high-risk male and 32 female offenders for the three year grant. The grant is was designed to:
- Address offender transition and re-entry issues and assist with career planning and employment efforts
- Decrease recidivism by twenty-five percent
- Increase offender success as measured by stable employment, stable residence, support of dependents and volunteer service in the community
The remarkably encouraging results of the initial three-year research project are described in detail in the federal grant report form, and two summaries of offender-specific goals and organizational culture submitted to the US Department of Education in December 2007. Over time, we hope that the WDP will help participants become valuable members of the workforce, paying taxpayers and individuals with greater purpose in life.
For additional background describing the initial three-year research project and its applications of the Habits of Mind and strength-based supervision, see:
16 Habit of Mind. After Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick, Habits of Mind: A Developmental Series (2000).
Habits of Mind: A Curriculum for Community High School of Vermont Students. Based on Habits of Mind: A Developmental Series by Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick (2000). Curriculum by Bethany Johnson, ReCycle North, Burlington, Vermont, Merryn Rutledge, Revisions, Burlington, Vermont, Margaret Poppe, Collaborations, Burlington, Vermont. Revised by Vermont Consultants for Language and Learning, Montpelier, Vermont. 2005.
Research Demonstration Project. Workforce Development Program, Vermont Department of Corrections. Funded by US Department of Education, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, Corrections Education, “Life Skills for Prisoners”. Published June 2005, Revised January 2007.
Strength-Based Supervision: Supportive Authority, Intentional Interventions, and Habits of Mind. Written by Chico Martin and Diane Robie with contributions from Joe Aldrich, John Gorczyk, Brian Bilodeau, Christine Leslie, and Dana Lesperance. Developed in collaboration with the Vermont Department of Corrections by Vermont Consultants for Language and Learning (dba) Nine East Network, Montpelier, Vermont. December 1, 2006.
U.S. Department of Education Grant Performance Report (ED 524B) for the Vermont Department of Corrections Life Skills for State and Local Prisoners Programs Grant. Submitted to the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), US Department of Education, December 2007.
Vermont’s Workforce Development Program Evaluation: Offender-Specific Goals. Submitted to the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), US Department of Education, December 2007.
Vermont’s Workforce Development Program Evaluation: Organizational Culture. Submitted to the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), US Department of Education, December 2007.
At the request of DOC Commissioner Steve Gold, Bert Senning - Director of DOC’s Vermont Correctional Industries, Bob Lucenti - Superintendent of DOC’s Community High School of Vermont and John Gorczyk - Manager of Vermont Offender Work Programs, agree to respond to the RFP that Commissioner Gold had received in the spring of 2003 about the availability of these funds.
These three visionary people collaborated to design the framework, proposed content, and desired outcomes of this demonstration grant/research project. It is noteworthy that DOC received this grant because this project proposed to not only train offenders in the 16 Habits of Mind but also all DOC staff who will be working closely with the offenders.
It is believed that program participants will be more willing to learn and integrate these 16 Habits of Mind when those from whom they receive day-to-day supervision, education and work instruction have a working knowledge of and a willingness to utilize these same 16 Habits of Mind in their interactions with the program participants.
The fact that the US Department of Education has been willing to fund this innovative approach to providing Vermont offenders with this personal development/life skill package is behavior through containment does not support their willingness to become pro-social in their behaviors. This is critical to know because the vast majority of people who serve time in our prisons return to their communities. It is also critical to know, given the fact that Vermont's prison population has quadrupled in the last 25 years, due in part, to recidivism.
Knowing this, and also knowing that collaborative, strength-based efforts have a far greater likelihood of influencing people to make positive changes, makes it morally imperative that we begin to craft and implement such programs if we are truly interested in reducing the numbers of people who return to prison because they simply don't know any better. We think we are up to this challenge and look forward to the adventure that lies ahead for those of us involved in the implementation of this program.