On April 24, 2011 Reentry Central posted an article on Malta Prison Volunteers Connecticut (MPVCT) that told how John Santa, a member of the Order of Malta, a prestigious Catholic organization dedicated to alleviating suffering, had an epiphany in 2005. While visiting a family friend in prison, Santa suddenly realized that there was immense suffering behind prison walls and sprang into action. Santa, along with Dennis Dolan, the chaplain at Connecticut’s only prison for women, established MPVCT. Although MPVCT is a Catholic organization, it works with people of all faiths, and its Board is made up of individuals various religious religions.
Since then MPVCT has created the Prodigal Project which seeks employment activities for formerly incarcerated people. Watch Prodigal Project videos here. MPVCT has transformed into the Malta Justice Initiative which has published a forward-looking book which diagrams the steps needed to reform Connecticut’s criminal justice program in keeping with solutions suggested by national prison reform leaders. The book The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-incarceration has Hijacked the American Dream, written by Brian E. Moran and the Malta Justice Initiative. The Justice Imperative provides a blueprint for reform which could be replicated in other states as well.
Among the primary recommendations:
Enactment of legislative reforms to reduce the use of long-term minimum mandatory sentences for non-violent offenses and/or prisoners who do not pose a high risk to public safety and/or to allow for the exercise of discretion and consideration of the actual history of violent behavior or propensity for violence of offenders (including elimination of the inflexible requirement to serve 85% of a sentence in all cases of crimes classified as “violent.”)
Formation of a cabinet-level committee to coordinate legislative and executive reforms, whose members are drawn from high-level state agency executives, the state attorney general’s office, law enforcement, mental health and drug rehabilitation service providers, prisoner advocacy groups, victims’ rights advocates, faith-based groups and local community organizations.
Development of an accurate and fulsome offender database (accessible by all state agencies and stakeholders) and procurement of proven analytical tools to assist judges in analyzing, on both an aggregated and individualized basis, criminal histories and propensity for violence in connection with arraignment, pretrial release and sentencing matters.
As an overall guiding principle, substitute treatment for incarceration in the case of the addicted, mentally ill and DUI offenders, particularly where they do not pose an inordinate threat to public safety.
Double inmate GED graduation rates and vocational training completion rates every two years and condition participation in such programs on sustained good behavior.
The Editorial Board of The Justice Imperative wrote in the summary of the book:
"As a society, we have become hardened toward felons. Historically, there has been little political or social support for the imprisoned or their families. It is generally considered political suicide to be perceived as soft on crime. This political paralysis has impeded efforts to be “smart on crime,”With the support of responsible informed citizens, elected officials will be more inclined to devote their attention to reforming the financially burdensome and socially destructive aspects of the present system."
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