Many key principles of President-elect Joe Biden’s criminal justice reform plan line up closely with practices already in place here in southeastern Connecticut.

Those include focusing police efforts on community relations, equipping law enforcement officers with the tools and partnerships to work with individuals who are mentally ill or on the autism spectrum, reducing prison populations and preparing incarcerated people for reentry into society.

"The Biden Plan for Strengthening America's Commitment to Justice" focuses on equality, equity and justice — three ideas that “form the American creed,” which Biden says the nation has never lived up to and has not always gotten right, but always has strived for.

Community policing

One of the first priorities Biden lays out in his plan is to “reinvigorate community policing.”

“Policing works best when officers are out of their cruisers and walking the streets, engaging with and getting to know members of their communities,” said Biden, who plans to also reinvigorate the Community Oriented Policing Services program with a $300 million investment.

Departments across southeastern Connecticut already have invested in developing strong relationships between law enforcement officers and community members. In fact, community policing is a large part of the training all recruits receive before they’re handed a badge and gun, as well as throughout the duration of their service.

In Connecticut, police recruits in any municipality have to finish more than 900 hours of training at the police academy in Meriden, followed by 400 hours in the field with their department, before they’re certified as officers. The Police Officer Standards and Training, or POST, Council — which runs and oversees the academy — emphasizes the importance of community engagement early on in each recruit's training.

The academy this year launched a new project that requires recruits to research the demographics, strengths and struggles of the towns and cities they will serve before they're sent in the field. Each recruit writes an essay about the community, its racial makeup, its local government and explains why the recruit is choosing to work there.

Marc Fasano, who took on the role of director of basic training at the academy in March, launched the project to help officers understand the particular economic and societal issues of residents they serve.

"When I came in as director, I wanted recruits to start looking at their role in society from a local level, regional level and state level," he said this summer. "Ultimately the goal is to open up their minds to what they can do to improve community relations.”

Last year the academy also started hosting community involvement events where recruits meet with representatives from organizations in their communities — like the NAACP and ACLU — to encourage positive relationships and open dialogue.

Those relationships are at the core of the academy’s training, Police Academy administrator Karen Boisvert said this summer.

"Community policing is who we are, we're here to help and we're here to serve. As a police officer — and we stress this in the academy — you should know your community. You're there as a public servant and the only way to know and serve your community is to get involved," she said.

Statewide, officers are required to undergo training to be recertified every three years. In many communities, training is offered year-round, whether an officer is due for a recertification or not.

At the New London Police Department, Capt. Brian Wright said he wants his officers to continually take stock of what’s going on in the city and work together to address residents’ needs.

Mental health, other social issues

Biden’s plan also aims to address underlying factors of mental illness, abuse, substance abuse and illiteracy to provide more equal opportunities and prevent crime and incarceration. He plans to expand federal funding for mental health and substance use disorder services and research, connect people with more social services and fund initiatives to partner mental health and substance use disorder experts, social workers and disability advocates with police departments.

These initiatives, Biden said, will help train police officers to better de-escalate interactions with people in distress before they become violent and help officers understand how to better approach people on the autism spectrum or with certain disabilities, including hearing impairment, “so misunderstanding does not lead to incarceration.”

In 2001, New London's was the first police department in New England to implement Crisis Intervention Team training through which officers work closely with mental health clinicians to help community members with mental illness and individuals who are in crisis. The CIT program is also now in place in Ledyard, Groton City, Waterford and Mitchell College, and Mashantucket Tribal, Groton Town and Stonington police have received such training.

The training program allows for a "community partnership" between police, mental health and addiction professionals and persons living with mental illness and addiction, with the goal of helping officers establish relationships with mental health resources. It’s meant to train officers in creative approaches to mental health issues, including seeking medical treatment for a person rather than arrest.

Officers receive 40 hours of training with mental health clinicians and then regular weekly visits, according to Ledyard police Chief John Rich, who co-chairs the Connecticut Alliance to Benefit Law Enforcement, or CABLE, a statewide program that oversees CIT training. During these weekly visits, officers and clinicians together go over all of their calls from the previous week. If any calls involved a person with mental illness, a crisis or a behavioral issue, the officer and clinician visit that person to follow up and see how they can offer support.

In January, state police and many local police departments began using new blue envelopes to allow for better, easier relations between officers and people on the autism spectrum.

Through a new law enacted at the start of the year, the envelopes were distributed at DMV offices, local police departments, driving schools and through autism advocacy groups. They are meant to help drivers on the spectrum understand how to behave during a traffic stop or accident and help officers understand how the driver may react to being pulled over.

The envelopes are given to drivers on the spectrum to keep in their vehicle, can hold the driver's insurance card, license and registration, along with a list of tips for both the driver and officer, including reminders to officers that the person may avoid eye contact, fidget or experience anxiety caused by the bright lights, sirens and radio noises, and may have trouble understanding or answering police questions.

Several local police departments distributed the envelopes and trained officers on their use, including New London, Groton town and city police departments, state police at Troops E in Montville and K in Colchester, and the East Lyme and Waterford police departments. 

Leslie Macnab, executive director of Autism Services and Resources Connecticut, said the envelopes help put police and the individual on the spectrum on a level playing field and allow them to communicate more effectively.

Reducing prison populations

Biden said one of his main objectives is to reduce incarceration rates and increase federal funding for other alternatives-to-detention courts and related programs for individuals convicted of nonviolent crimes, such as veterans courts and youthful offender courts.

“We need to rethink who we’re sending to jail, how we treat those in jail, and how we help them get the health care, education, jobs, and housing they need to successfully rejoin society after they serve their time,” Biden said. “We can and must reduce the number of people incarcerated in this country while also reducing crime.”

He hopes to focus the criminal justice system on redemption and rehabilitation, offering incarcerated persons second chances by making sure they have the tools in place to be productive members of society after they are released.

In Connecticut, the state Department of Correction’s Offender Reentry Unit provides assistance to incarcerated people to assist with their reentry into the community, a task that starts upon admission to prison. Every facility in the state has either a part-time or full-time reentry counselor, who begins more intense re-entry work six months to one year before release.

The counselors help make sure incarcerated individuals have access to an ID, their Social Security number and any medications they may need. They also provide medical referrals by working with medical staff and mental health counselors and make sure the person has a plan for housing and information about resources like food banks.

The reentry unit also has six job centers, where counselors help incarcerated individuals write resumes, learn interview skills and start their job search before their release.

The number of incarcerated persons in the state has been steadily declining for years. As of November 2020, the state had 9,354 people in prison — nearly 7,000 less than in 2015.

The number of inmates in southeastern Connecticut has decreased, as well. In November, there were 620 people imprisoned at Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Facility in Montville and 515 at York Correctional Institution in Niantic, compared to 788 inmates at Corrigan and 1,068 at York in 2015.

Biden’s platform also calls for the immediate passage of Virginia U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott’s SAFE Justice Act, a national goal of ensuring 100% of formerly incarcerated individuals have housing upon release, investing $1 billion per year and eliminating the death penalty, which Connecticut ended in 2012.

To read Biden’s entire platform, visit https://joebiden.com/justice.

t.hartz@theday.com