Teen (13 - 19)

In January, Vera spoke with the UDC site lead via conference call, providing him with an overview of key findings and recommendations related to Utah's: incarceration of special populations (e.g., people w/disabilities, STGs, young adults, etc.), training and staff wellness, and restrictive housing in the new facility. The remainder of the call was spent finalizing the agenda for the scheduled site visit on 1/25.

In January, the Vera team completed its research analysis, and developed findings and recommendations for its draft report for LADOC. The team also developed a presentation of this material for LADOC that will take place on 2/8/18. Vera sent its draft findings and recommendations to BJA and followed up with a call to discuss strategies for finalizing content for a final version of the report.

Development Services Group, Inc. (DSG) requested information around school safety for a webinar they are hosting for OJJDP Youth Violence Grantees. Coordinator reached out to DSG to gather more information about which areas of school safety and age groups they need resources for. Coordinator will gather relevant resources from the BJA provider directory for DSG.

In December, the Vera team moved towards completing analysis of administrative data, institutional policies, and focus group data to advance towards generating a comprehensive set of findings and recommendations for reducing the use of segregation in the Louisiana prison system. Vera is scheduled to present findings and recommendations to LADOC leadership on Feburary 8th.

In December, Vera continued to regularly check-in with UDC leadership to clarify the qualitative and quantitative data we collected regarding both system-wide and unit level policies and practices. Vera staff also facilitated a conference call with UDC’s site lead in order to review our findings and recommendations. Vera also worked diligently to draft findings and recommendations for UDC and is preparing for the presentation of recommendations next January.

Vera convened and facilitated an in-person meeting with select members of VADOC leadership to present findings and recommendations in preparation for the transition to the implementation phase of the project. As part of the convening, Vera staff met with heads of multiple VADOC work committees responsible for integrating our findings and recommendations into the roll-out of VADOCs reforms.

In December, there was an email thread proposing, modifying, and tentatively scheduling site visit for January 2018 between Vera and MNDOC. On 12/18, there was a regular meeting with MNDOC site leads to establish site visit plan, identify critical visitation objectives, and goals for site visit. On 12/19, Vera followed up with MNDOC site lead regarding upcoming site visit and meetings. On, 12/21, emails were exchanged confirming with the MNDOC site lead visitation itineraries and other logistics.

The Vera team emailed correspondence with Ely State Prison wardens to establish next steps for addressing concerns around STG placements in and releases from segregation units on 12/7. On 12/18 and 12/20, the team had phone calls confirming Vera's visit to present findings and recommendations (on 1/12/18). These included outlining Vera's needs, plans, a framework for the presentation and a discussion about who would be present and participating in the meeting.

In an effort to hone our findings and recommendations for UDC, the UT team developed remaining questions for UDC leadership regarding their policies and practices. Ongoing correspondence with our site lead (Jerry Pope) enabled the Vera team to integrate the answers to these questions into our preliminary findings and recommendations. The Vera team discussed with our UDC site lead the format for the UT findings and recommendations presentation along with ideas for future blogs re. UDC operations and relationships with external stakeholders.

In November, Vera had a check-in call with VADOC's Tori Raiford in preparation for follow-up on-site meeting with VADOC leadership scheduled for November 16th. The goal of the November meeting is: 1) to hear how VADOC is progressing with their reforms to date, and 2) to have VADOC leadership identify which of our VA team's recommendations they are ready to start implementing, versus those recommendations that may require additional information and/or discussion.