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Safely Reduce Incarceration
Unnecessary incarceration hurts incarcerated people as well as their children, families and communities —and makes us all less safe.
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Save Taxpayer Dollars
Vermont spends $75,000 per prison inmate per year but only $25,000 per school student. We can’t afford unnecessary incarceration.
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Reinvest in Communities
Investing in people over prisons reduces crime and makes us all safer. We don’t have to keep warehousing poor people and disabled people in prisons.
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Keep Families Together
We can interrupt multi-generational cycles of poverty and trauma by preventing the unnecessary incarceration of mothers and fathers.
Please join us!
VCJR is working every day to improve the health and safety of justice-involved people, their children and families, and our communities
To do this, we provide direct supportive services to justice-involved individuals AND we work toward systemic change at the community, state and federal levels
VCJR takes advantage of the important synergy between policy advocacy, direct support services, academic research, leadership development among people with lived experience and public engagement to
help make change happen!
VCJR Selected to Operate Vermont’s First Overdose Prevention Center in Burlington
March 11, 2025 —The City of Burlington, Vermont has selected Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform (VCJR) as the service provider to establish and operate Vermont’s first Overdose Prevention Center (OPC) in downtown Burlington.
Over the coming months, VCJR will integrate OPC services into our existing overdose prevention, harm reduction, drug treament, medical support, recovery support and related services for people living with substance use disorders, and begin to implement our enhanced service offerings at a new location under the name Downtown Health Project.
Re-entry & Recovery Center
Our re-entry and recovery center provides specialized services and supports designed by and for justice-involved people living with substance use disorders
Only 13% of prison staff say we are adequately preparing people for success upon release from incarceration
Risk of fatal overdose goes up over 1,000% during the weeks following release from incarceration
Incarcerated poeple listed improving re-entry support as their number one need
Policy Reform
Key areas of policy reform include:
reducing unnecessary incarceration
preventing the forced separation of children and parents caused by the unnecessary incarceration of mothers and fathers
drug policy reform
limiting the use of extreme sentences like life without the possibility of parole
creating “second look” mechanisms to re-evaluate circumstances relating to public safety, rehabilitation and justice after an individual has served a long period of incarceration
Key Policy Initiatives
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MOUD in Correctional Facilities
Over half of people incarcerated in Vermont are living with opioid use disorder, and access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) while incarcerated supports recovery and saves lives.
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Justice-Involved Parents
Thousands of Vermont children experience the traumatic effects of having an incarcerated parent —most often a father.
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Sober Housing Reform
Vermont is in a housing crisis and justice-involved people and people living with substance use disorders are disproportionately homeless. We need sober houses to support people who struggle —not kick them out to unsafe settings in violation of Vermont landlord-tenant laws.
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Buprenorphine Policy Project
Vermont is experiencing an opioid disaster and many people are dying. There is a medication that cuts mortality in half or more BUT, under the current model, less than half of those who need the medication actually get it.
Overdose Prevention
Overdose deaths have increased sharply in Vermont and justice-involved people are at highest risk
VCJR services designed to reduce overdose risk include:
re-entry services (support during the especially dangerous weeks following release from incarceration)
case management
professional and peer-based recovery supports
Narcan (naloxone) distribution
distribution of fentanyl and xylazine test strips
overdose education and skills building
contingency management —an evidence-based behavioral health intervention designed to reduce overdose risk
Art for Change
VCJR’s traveling art exhibit featuring works by currently and formerly incarcerated artists was first exhibited at the Vermont State House
The exhibit tours art galleries, colleges and festivals to help raise awareness about the creativity, talent, depth and humanity in us all
View Artwork >
Speaking from Experience
VCJR values the leadership of people with lived experience
Over half of our board and staff have lived experience with the justice system (incarceration or the incarceration of a family member)
VCJR helps people with lived experience share their stories through media interviews and by testifying before the Vermont legislature
VCJR surveys people who are recently released from incarceration about their experiences, needs and priorities for change
What People Are Saying About VCJR
“They care so much about the people they work with and helping them individually but also work harder than anyone I know on fixing it on the big picture too.”
— VCJR Program Participant
“VCJR’s specialized recovery center stands to fill an enormous gap in our recovery network and in so doing, save lives.”
— TJ Donovan
Vermont Attorney General (former)
“Making sure justice-involved people have what they need to succeed benefits all of us.”
