So we're talking a little bit about
how language matters and how the way
we treat residents can affect them.
You know, in the real world, when,
if and when they get out of here,
you know what has that been like
for the Department of Corrections?
It's been a. It's been
a culture shift and really an evolution,
but one. It's really.
It's been embraced in a very positive way,
both with staff and with
the resident population.
We've worked very hard over the
last several years to instill what
we call a culture of Wellness and.
Really, what that is is just.
You know making sure that individuals
who come into the camera custody
of the department have their needs
met and that we provide them with
resources they need services they need,
and a significant part of that
is how we communicate with them,
how we address them,
how we refer to them not only
inside our facilities,
but with our external stakeholders.
And so it's been.
It's been a real shift, and it's.
You know the really neat thing about
it is naturally when you when you
start working to destigmatize and you
really shift how you speak about things.
It has a very positive effect
without even having to drill
down into why it's positive,
like just naturally as you talk that
way as staff interact that way,
it's just very positive overall
and so you can feel the environment
of our facilities reflect that
you don't feel hostility,
tension or anything.
It's a very respectful environment and.
I attribute that a lot to how
we communicate with each other
and how we refer to each other.
Why
is this something that mean Department
of Corrections wanted to do?
It's been a priority, you know,
for Commissioner Liberty and I think
it's really an extension of the
work of Governor Mills and so when
Governor Mills came into office,
you know her first immediate priority
was to provide services to those who need
services through Medicaid expansion,
but also through her opioid response
and the Department of Corrections was a
significant stakeholder in the opioid.
Response plan and a piece of that
is changing how we view things
like substance use and the need for
treatment and all of those issues
that come with it and our population
here within the DC has a lot of
substance use issues that need to
be addressed and so you know we've
really partnered with the Governor,
director Gordon Smith,
on their work to destigmatize substance
use treatment.
And with that you know we see it being
an extension to really destigmatize
corrections and the things that
happen to lead up to incarceration
and then transition out of correction.
So it's.
We really didn't view it,
could be just one area focusing
on destigmatization.
It really needed to be a
collective approach and you know
our goal ultimately is again to
improve the Wellness of people.
And so when you refer to them differently,
when you treat them with more respect,
it helps as you address those needs.
And so it really wraps into an
overall priority of the Commissioner
with the support of the governor.
It's
interesting. You mentioned substance abuse.
I was actually talking to a
coworker last week who does a
lot with substance use disorders.
And she said, you know,
you don't want to call them addicts anymore.
You want to call them someone
with substance abuse disorder.
Is that the same kind of thing
you know you don't want to call
them an inmate or prisoner?
You want to call them a president?
Is this all kind of tide together?
Yes, it's all tide together.
And when we started rolling out this
idea of language matters to our staff
and to our resident population,
we did it in a very comprehensive manner,
and so we didn't just shift from
prisoner or inmate to resident.
We started focusing on using
phrases like substitutes.
Disorder, substance use treatment.
Persons with substance use disorder
instead of saying things like added,
you know instead of talking about
failing a drug test or things like that,
we just we changed the language up even
outside of substance use treatment you know,
in corrections we have historically referred
to people as sex offenders and we refer
to that now as a person with a problem,
sexual behavior and problem,
sexual behavior treatment.
'cause that's really the industry standard.
For treatment language and so we
do that all throughout everything.
All of our corrections operations and it.
It helps that we didn't just
focus on substance use treatment,
it helps that we didn't just change
the word resident to resident because
it allows us to really impact
across all of what we do versus just
a very silent approach.
What
do you say? Obviously going
to be Facebook commenter when
this story is that you know,
oh, they're prisoners.
They did horrible things.
You know what do you say to that person?
Many people do horrible things
and you know our goal in the DSCR
responsibility is not to judge them.
It's really to have them in our care
and custody and we view our primary
responsibility to return them to the
Community and a healthier fashion so
that our main communities are stronger.
And so in order to do that,
we have to treat them with respect and
we have to treat them with dignity.
And we have to provide them with the
opportunities and services they need
in order to return in a stronger,
healthier fashion.
And so it doesn't do us any good
to stigmatize them and to carry on
and really fulfill those stigmas
they've been living with.
While they're with us,
it really does us justice to treat them
with respect and speak to them with respect,
and then provide them with the
opportunities they need and
and the language matters.
Initiative is really a foundation
for us to do that.
Is so is this the first Correctional
Facility in Maine that is starting this,
or are we doing this statewide
so our entire Department of Corrections
has rolled this out and so we ran into
about a year and a half of it now,
and that includes all five of our adult
correctional facilities across the state,
as well as our juvenile facility.
And then we also have this rolled out
across our community corrections offices,
so juveniles and adults on probation.
They're referred to as clients.
And they all of the other terminologies
that we use are also carried out
in those in those settings as well.
Is this going to, you know,
if and when residents are released from
Department of Corrections custody,
do we think this will make the state safer?
Absolutely? I mean our overriding
goal is public safety, as it should
be in when we have somebody releasing
into the Community who is untreated,
been treated disrespectfully or
and goes out in a manner that
we would consider unhealthy.
It puts the public at risk
at a higher risk and then.
We're not doing our job
of protecting the public,
and so this is absolutely connected
to our goal of public safety,
because treating with respect,
encouraging, and providing interventions,
treatment resources,
and other things to make them healthier.
Sends them into the community with a
much stronger chance of staying in the
community and contributing productively.
An individual who leaves the Department
of Corrections now has opportunities
for all levels of higher education,
including a college diploma degree,
which significantly increases
their chance of staying.
How in the community and contributing
through job contributing to their family,
and so forth,
and so that ultimately reduces the risk to
the public and increases public safety?
Is this good news for the. Greater community.
We view it as good news, you know.
Ultimately, it's good news.
If individuals stay out in the community,
contribute and don't come back to
incarceration, and that's what
we're seeing as a result of it.
In the very short term,
and we think it's going to carry forward.
Are there any statistics of that?
So what we know right now specifically to
things like medication assisted treatment,
we know that the return to custody
rate after a year is only 7%.
And so we we measure all of that,
because this has only been in
place for a year and a half or so.
You know, we typically measure
things in year increments,
and so really over the next six 1218 months,
we're going to have a lot of data
that supports what we're doing.
And I think that's going to hopefully
convince those who are still skeptical
about the work we're doing and show them
that it really is protecting the public.
But it's also creating healthier
people when they leave,
leave incarceration.
Do any of these programs?
Cost more taxpayer dollars,
no. So that's another great thing is
that Department of Corrections has not
asked for an additional dime from the
taxpayers in order to do any of this,
and instead what we've done is we've taken
the services that we provide and we've put.
We've modernized them,
humanized them, and really use
new language and new approaches.
And we've created great partnerships,
so we have partnerships with four
colleges in Maine and outside of Maine.
We have partnerships with community
colleges for vocational services and
those are partnerships where they come
in and don't require us to provide
significant amounts of funding to them
in order to provide these services.
They want to help us with this mission
and so there's not an increased cost
to taxpayers and in the end there's a
savings to taxpayers when individuals
don't come back to incarceration
and our population stays reduced.
Anything else you think I should know?
Is it the only thing I would add
is that you know this ultimately is
about protecting Maine communities and
making Maine a safer, healthier place.
And when we do that by intervening
in the lives of people incarcerated,
we're ultimately helping our main
communities because individuals that
incarcerated come back into our into
our communities of majority of them
returned to the location that they
came from to their family members
and their friends.
And we want them to do that.
In the healthiest manner possible,
and in a manner that protects victims,
increases public safety,
but also allows them to contribute
in a positive way.