A regular Source feature, Undercurrents explores issues, ideas and events as they develop beneath the surface in the Virgin Islands community.
It must get depressing for a judge, week after week sentencing people to jail. So many of those people don’t seem to understand why they are in court in the first place; they never thought there would be consequences for what they did. So many of them are poorly educated. So many don’t have a job. So many have a drug habit. So many are young. So many have been in court before.
Nationally more than 1.6 million people were living in state and federal correctional facilities in 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Justice website. That’s one in every 201 U.S. residents.
The Virgin Islands ratio may be even higher than the national average. An official figure isn’t readily available, but using recent estimates of the prison population from the V.I. Bureau of Corrections (600) and the Virgin Islands’ total population figure from the most recent World Bank report (109,666), the territory’s ratio works out to one prisoner for every 183 people.
Even sadder are statistics on recidivism. Nationally 40 percent of people who are released from a correctional facility return to prison within three years.
A lot of groups are trying to lower those numbers throughout the country. In the Virgin Islands, the District Court, under the direction of Chief Judge Curtis V. Gomez, is leading the effort.
For several years, it has sponsored “Kids and the Court,” a program under which court and law enforcement officials go into the schools to talk to students about the consequences of choices they may make in life. Some classes are invited to court to observe a trial and learn the weight of justice.
Many people who break the law “don’t think of the collateral damage that happens,” said Denise Donadelle-DeCosta, chief U.S. probation officer for the District Court. “It affects the whole community.”
That’s the message the program tries to convey to youth.
More recently, using grant monies available through the federal “Second Chance” initiative, the court has introduced a program aimed at helping people who have served their sentence to get back into the community and to stay out of prison.
“I am pleased that the District Court of the Virgin Islands is spearheading a cooperative effort involving the U.S. Probation Office, the Office of the Federal Public Defender, and the Office of the United States Attorney to create a reentry court program,” Gomez said. “This program offers a creative combination of treatment, employment and educational assistance” to rehabilitate offenders and protect the community.
The pilot program, conducted on St. Thomas, lasted about a year and a half and ended in November. Five men, all in their 20s or 30s, and all having served about 10 years in jail, received special help through the program. All had substance abuse problems; three were treated in rehabilitation institutes, one on St. Croix at the Village and two at stateside facilities. All five were hired by the V.I. Housing Authority and undertook a training course.
Along the way, they received what Donadelle-Decosta described as “closer monitoring” than what most people receive as part of the normal time of supervised release that concludes any federal sentence. At least once a month they met with the team – staff from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Probation Office, and the federal public defender. Judge Gomez talked with them at special times, such as the beginning of Carnival, to encourage them not to be distracted from their goals.
Of the five, only one graduated. And Donadelle-DeCosta admitted, “I know at least one is back in the system.”
But given the normal odds, that’s definitely not failure.
“The way we look at it, one made it, so that was great,” she said.
The team is preparing to begin a second cycle. This time the program will be conducted on St. Croix as well as St. Thomas and will involve five people on each island.
“We are in the assessment stage right now,” Donadelle-DeCosta said. “We need tough cases.” Sex offenders and people who are severely mentally ill are not eligible. But, in general, the Second Chance program is intended for high-risk people who are difficult to supervise but who also have shown an interest in the program.
While the team is looking for participants, they are also looking for businesses who will offer them jobs, Donadelle-DeCosta said. There are some tax credits available to companies that employ ex-offenders.
“We need to learn that people can change,” she said.
