Law

Vermont Department of Corrections Town Hall Meeting 05/15/2013

Vermont Department of Corrections holds a third town meeting over Vermont Interactive Technologies, providing an update on the changes to the Community High School of Vermont and taking comments and questions from the public.

Conversation on Race Now -Listening to the Voices of Parents 04/25/2013

Conversation on Race Now (C.O.R.N.) invites community members in a listening session to the voices of Parents from our community, in facilitated dialogue
addressing their experiences in relationship to race/racism in their lives. (with audience participation).
Facilitated by: Kiah Ellis, Undergraduate student, pursuing a history/philosophy degree at UVM, Avid, competitive snowboarder, participating
member of " Voices of Youth Restorative Circle"
Keynote Guest Speaker: Robert L. Walsh, noted author, graduate of Colgate and MA from UVM, Bob retired from the USMC as Lt. Colonel,
served as a member of the Vermont House of Representatives, adjunct faculty at UVM, and taught Africa American Studies at South Burlington H.S. His life experience in these areas has afforded him a wide range of experience as related to racism in our state, country and throughout the military world. His stories as a real life witness express the true nature of what it was like, what we see today and what the vision for our future may hold as we explore undoing racism in our community. More information: vhm84@hotmail.com

Combating Drug Trafficking 04/15/2013

The United States Attroney's Office discusses ongoing cooperative efforts between federal, state and local agencies to combat heroin and other drug trafficking in Chittenden County.

Judge Ben: Special Investigative Units in Vermont - A VAWA Success Story 04/15/2013

Judge Ben Joseph hosts a conversation with Marc Metayer, SIU Grants Program Manager with Vermont Department of State's Attorneys, John Treadwell, Assistant Vermont Attorney General, and Kristine Bickford, Executive Director of the Chittenden Special Investigative Unit (CUSI), on the special investigative units in Vermont and the importance of the recently signed federal legislation 'Violence Against Women Act' (VAWA).

Near & Far Video, Introduced by Richard Kemp: The Road to Recovery 2013: Join the Voices for Recovery: Together on Pathways to Wellness 04/10/2013

Ivette Torres, Associate Director for Consumer Affairs, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The 2013 National Recovery Month (Recovery Month) observance represents the many ways for people to prevent behavioral health issues, seek treatment, sustain recovery, and live a healthy life. The 2013 theme, Join the Voices of Recovery: Together on Pathways to Wellness, aims to educate individuals and communities, emphasizing that it is essential to seek physical and mental wellness every day, through multiple pathways and throughout the recovery process, to achieve health and well-being. As the Road to Recovery series kicks off its 13th season, this episode will highlight the many accomplishments of the 2012 Recovery Month campaign and look forward to a successful September 2013 Recovery Month.

If you have questions or comments about this program, please contact Richard Kemp at rtkemp@aol.com.

Race, Criminal Justice, and Alternatives to Mass Incarceration - A Conversation with King Downing 04/08/2013

King Downing engages the Champlain College audience in charting a historical progressin leading to the incarceration numbers in our prisons and status of the justice system in America. King Downing, the founding director of the Human Rights-Racial Justice Center, brings a profound understanding of the intersection of race, class and criminal (in)justice in America honed during his forty years of work as an activist, community organizer, policy advocate and civil-rights attorney. Throughout his career he has fought for the rights and lives of those impacted by criminal justice on many issues including mass incarceration, the school to prison pipeline, and the Campaign to End the New Jim Crow. Most recently, he directed the Healing Justice Program of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) where he worked on issues related to mass incarceration, including solitary confinement, prisoner advocacy and conflict resolution. The program goals included striving to increase reliance on transformative, healing forms of justice rather than punitive practices that damage body or spirit, as well as to end racial injustice in all justice practices. Downing also worked to build up the AFSC Alternatives to Violence Project, teaching at-risk youth alternative forms of conflict resolution and setting up dialogues and creative projects between men and women who have committed and suffered violent crimes.
Before joining the AFSC, Downing served eight years as national coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union's Campaign Against Racial Profiling, with a focus on policing and incarceration. One primary focus area was the then emerging awareness of the school-to-prison pipeline. While with the ACLU, Downing worked with the organization’s affiliates and partners to identify and end racial disparities in policing on the federal and local levels. In this work, he was helping to support and coordinate their various efforts, whether crafting legislation, setting up Know Your Rights Workshops and trainings, conducting media outreach, offering public education projects on police and incarceration practices, and engaging in community organizing.

Co-Sponsored by the Institute for Global Engagement and the Office of Diversity & Inclusion

Burlington Dismas House Annual Dinner and Auction - Keynote Bess Klassen-Landis 04/06/2013

Bess Klassen-Landis was 13 years old, living in a small Mennonite community in rural northern Indiana when her mother was brutally raped and murdered in their home. The crime was never solved and Bess lived with symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for the next 37 years.
After joining other murder victim family members on the Journey of Hope…From Violence to Healing in Texas in 2005, Bess experienced deep healing and a letting go of fear. She realized that while living with fear, she had compromised her own humanity. She ultimately forgave her mom’s murderer and reclaimed the fullness of her own humanity.
Bess has continued to work for abolition of the death penalty since that time. She has shared her powerful message of healing through love rather than vengeance to audiences around the country. Bess took a year’s leave of absence from her job as an elementary art teacher to speak to hundreds of groups including high schools, universities, prisons, churches and civic groups across twelve states. Bess has also testified before New Hampshire’s Senate Judiciary Committee, New Hampshire’s Death Penalty Study Commission and before legislators in the Missouri State House.
Bess is an artist, teacher and singer songwriter, residing in southeastern Vermont since 1987. Bess has just released her second CD, Way Up In Vermont. www.bessklassen-landis.com

Serving the community for 27 years, Burlington Dismas House is the largest and longest running provider of post prison housing in Chittenden County, and has housed more than 650 former prisoners. Burlington Dismas House offers structured, supportive transitional housing for men and women striving to change their lives as they struggle to make the change from lives of crime and addiction to lives as independent and contributing members of the community. By helping former prisoners transition to productive lives, Burlington Dismas House helps to reduce the repetition of criminal behavior and ensure greater public safety. For more information visit www.dismasofvermont.org. MC, Thomas J. Donovan, State's Atorney of Chittenden County - Rev. Frederick 'Rick' Ney, Interfaith Chaplain, Fletcher Allen Health Care, receives Jack Hickey Award.

SeeClickFix - Burlington Code Enforcement 03/21/2013

Bill Ward, Director of Burlington Code Enforcement, speaks with staff on the challenges and successes of their job.

Police/Citizen Encounters and Constitutional Rights of Citizens and Students 03/15/2013

Vermont Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild presents, through the generous sponsorship of Main Street Landing, "Train the Trainers: Police/Citizen Encounters and Constitutional Rights of Citizens and Students". Presenting are: Charles J. DiMare, Esq. PARTNER, Antonino and DiMare, Amherst, Massachusetts, and ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, School of Education, University of Massachusetts - William A. Nelson, Esq. AUTHOR of Butterworth’s VERMONT CRIMINAL PRACTICE and longtime Vermont APPELLATE DEFENDER, now in private practice in Middlebury, Vermont.

Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

ARTICLE 11 of the Vermont Constitution

That the people have a right to hold themselves, their houses, papers, and possessions, free from search or seizure; and therefore warrants, without oath or affirmation first made, affording sufficient foundation for them, and whereby by any officer or messenger may be commanded or required to search suspected places, or to seize any person or persons, his, her or their property, not particularly described, are contrary to that right, and ought not to be granted.

Judge Ben: Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Revisited 03/11/2013

Judge Ben Joseph hosts a conversation with Judy Rex, Executive Director of Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services, Karen Tronsgard-Scott, Executive Director of Vermont Network Against Domestic & Sexual Violence, and Karen Richardson, Director of Poverty Law Project with Vermont Legal Aid, on the implications of the recently signed Violence Against Women Act. (VAWA)

Featured Story

Summer Video Production Internship - Applications Open

Town Meeting TV is hiring two paid interns to join our production team for the summer! The program will run from Monday, June 24th until Friday, August 16th (8 weeks). $17 an hour, approximately 8 hours per week. We are looking for folks who have basic or intermediate experience with video recording and editing on Adobe Premiere. Interns will work with the Town Meeting TV Co-Directors to pick stories or events that they would like to cover in our community, practice outreach skills, then shoot and edit video that will be broadcasted on Town Meeting TV's YouTube and cable channels. Interested applicants should send their resume and cover letter (including why they are interested in this position and any relevant experience) to Jordan at jmitchell@cctv.org. Applications close Friday, May 24th at 5:00PM. For more information, please contact outreach@cctv.org or call 802-862-3966.

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