Invest in People, Not Prisons
Act Now
Conversations in the Vermont legislature this year have been dominated by concerns about public safety, and we have seen a flood of proposals that aim to address these concerns by creating new crimes or passing harsher criminal penalties – a strategy we know simply does not work.
Our communities are struggling. We all know it and we can all feel it. But evidence and experience show us that the only way to solve these problems is to address the root causes. When we meet people's basic needs – housing, health care, education – everyone can thrive.
We also know that harsher criminal penalties do not deter crime or reduce the likelihood that someone might commit future crimes after incarceration. The U.S. Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice found that increasing the severity of punishment does not deter crime and that prisons may actually exacerbate recidivism.
Ensuring that everyone has access to housing will make our communities stronger and more vibrant – criminalizing unhoused people will not. Harm reduction approaches to address the overdose crisis will save lives and make our communities safer – further criminalizing drug use will not.
Too often, we use incarceration to address behavior that results from substance use disorder or untreated mental health conditions – and our criminal law system disproportionately targets people of color. Here's a snapshot of the data:
- 70% of the people incarcerated are prescribed some form of medication for mental health conditions compared to approximately 16% of the general population, according to the VT Department of Corrections.
- Also from the VT Department of Corrections, 60% of the people incarcerated in the state of Vermont are receiving medication for opioid use disorder, while only one percent of the general population has opioid use disorder.
- In Vermont a Black person is 7 times more likely than a white person to be incarcerated and people of Hispanic origin are 4.5 times more likely to be incarcerated. Learn more from the VT Department of Corrections.
We are asking you to contact your legislators today and remind them we cannot incarcerate our way out of the problems we face. Ask lawmakers to invest in solutions that address the root causes of crime and make our communities stronger – and to reject failed policies that rely on criminalization and incarceration.
Recipients:
Your State Senator
Your State House Representative