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C 

CAA: Client Authorized Activator.  Staff members who are authorized to activate the community emergency notification lists. (26.05)

Calculated/Planned Use of Force: The use of force in situations where time and circumstances allow for consultation with qualified health care and mental health professionals and approval by higher ranking employees, and where there is some opportunity to plan the actual use of force. (413.01)

CAN: Community Alert Network.  The corporation contracted by the VTDOC to do automated emergency notification. (26.05)

Capsicum: Any solanceous plant of the genus capsicum, occurring in many pepper varieties of the garden, that has pungent seeds ranging from mild to hot, enclosed in a podded or bell shaped pericap. (413.03)

Case Co-management: The process by which an assigned facility Caseworker and field office Probation & Parole Officer engage in collaborative decision-making about an offender’s case from their detention to discharge. (371.05 - 11/07)

Case Documentation:  A form of correctional documentation that contains both narrative and associated case information, and documents case activity.  Examples of case documentation include, but are not limited to, case notes, parole summaries, graduated sanction reports, incident reports, case summaries, violations, and revocations. (254.04 – 12/07)

Case Information: Documents, electronic files, forms, notes, reports, assessments, plans or data in any form whether reduced to print, microfiche, photograph, video or audio/visual tape recordings that pertain to a specific person currently or formerly under the supervision of the Department, or currently or formerly confined in and Department correctional facility.  Case information does not include: medical or mental health records; education records; or treatment records. (254.01)

Case Management Summary (CMS): A case note entry that documents the result of a case plan counseling session. (371.17)

Case Note:  An electronic note pertaining to an offender’s case written by Caseworkers, Probation Officers, supervising staff, or other staff with relevant information, which documents activity relating to that offender. Examples include, but are not limited to, details about a meeting with an offender, notes on a phone call with a victim or another staff person, recording that the offender called the Social Security Administration regarding transition planning, results of an alco-sensor, results of a case staffing, or pertinent information which may influence case planning or case status. (254.04 – 12/07)

Case Plan Counseling Session:  A meeting between the CSS and the offender and other relevant individuals held every 60 days.  During the CPCS the CSS shares his/her assessment of the offender’s overall progress towards achieving the goals of the case plan and/or assigned program; rewards the offender’s accomplishments; and counsels the offenders in areas of the case plan that need improvement.  When the session is completed, the CSS will write a summary of the offender’s progress towards completion of the case plan activities and progress towards completing the program per program completion schedule. (371.17)

Case Planning (Offender Responsibility Planning): The process by which case co-managers, working collaboratively with the offender and associated stakeholders, make decisions about activities designed to reduce criminogenic needs, promote responsibility-taking, repair harm, and support offender reintegration into the community. (371.05 - 11/07)

Case Record:  Is defined to mean any information other than criminal history record, medical, mental health, or substance abuse records which is held my the Department concerning an offender who is or has been committed to the custody and supervision of the Department of Corrections, to include such documents as those contained in the CID manual (I.D. Face Sheet, Movement Notice, etc.). (51)

Casework Supervisor (CWS): Individual responsible for supervision of casework, classification, and supervision of offenders. (371.04)

CCSC:  Community Corrections Service Center.  A unit designated to provide services and supervision to offenders in the community.  (407.03, 424.06)

CDC:  Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia. (351.01, 414.05)

Central Facility:  A correctional facility designed to house offenders long term.  These are located in Windsor, Newport and St. Albans and Springfield. (313.02)

Central Level:  Program designation level at which program authorization needs to occur.  Requires central office authorization, (371)

Central Office:  The location of the Commissioner and Director’s of the department’s divisions.  The Chief of Emergency Preparedness is also assigned to Central Office.   (414.03)

CERT:  Corrections Emergency Response Team. (404.02 - 03/07)  The group will consist of pre-identified individuals both for statewide and facility teams.  A CERT is a highly trained unit with a specific tactical role whose responsibility is to provide physical use of force (or show of force) to contain and resolve a disturbance and to re-establish custody and control of a given physical area. (414, 414.01, 414.03, 414.04)

Certified Trainers: Qualified personnel who are approved by the Academy Administrator to instruct specific training courses. (106.05 - 11/07)

Chain of Custody: A process to control and document security and handling of contraband and criminal physical evidence. (interim procedure on Contraband Classification and Disposition)

Chemical Agent: Chemical compounds that, when deployed, are designed to cause sufficient physiological effect to stop, control, or temporarily immobilize an individual. Common chemical agents are OC (oleoresin capsicum) and CN (2-choloracetophenone). (413.01) Also known as “foreign agent”. (Interim Procedure – Use of Force Field and Threats on Staff)

Chemical Agent Devices: Chemical agent devices consist of three (3) categories: (1) Category I devices are hand held aerosol dispensers; (2) Category II devices are limited to the OC pepper ball delivery system; (3) Category III devices consist of all methods of administration of chemical agents other than Category I and II devices; e.g. munitions fired from a gas gun. (413.01)

Citation:  A legal notice ordering appearance in court to face allegations of violation behavior or the beginning of the due process procedure connected with a probation violation.  This is given to offenders who have allegedly violated probation conditions but who, in the discretion of the correctional officer, have not been arrested. (413.06)

Classification:  A process used in Vermont’s correctional facilities to determine where and how a sentenced offender should serve his/her sentence. (313.02)

Classification Designation and Placement Form:  Form authorizing facility placement.  The form also contains summary of case plans and activities. (371.04)

Close Observation/Dry Cell Status:  The placement of an inmate in a room or cell for close observation until the inmate has voided the contraband or until sufficient time has elapsed to preclude the possibility that the inmate is concealing contraband. (409.01)

CO: Correctional Officer (101)

Co-case Management: Developing a case plan using a team approach: CSS, offender, CO’s, providers, and any other relevant parties working to formulate a comprehensive case plan. (125.01)

Collateral Contact:  A direct or indirect contact between department staff and individuals who know or are involved with the offender.  These contacts may be risk control or risk management focused and are intended to supplement the direct supervision of the offender and provide critical information as to the offenders pro-social performance in the community.  Collateral contacts are, for example, victim, spouse, children, boss, landlord, police, neighbors, service providers, states attorney, judge, etc. (371.17)

Commander:  Superintendent of the facility throughout an emergency. (414.03)

Commissioner:  The Commissioner of the State Department of Corrections. (352)

Community Correctional Services Center (CCSC):  Field office responsible for delivering case planning and supervision services to high-risk offenders. (313.02, 423.01)

Community Corrections Officer (CCO):  DOC employees who supervise high-risk offenders in the community.  CCO’s perform risk management/risk control contacts, evaluate and report any unusual behavior including rule infractions, violations of terms of release, lapses in Offender’s Relapse Prevention Plan, and/or difficulties in adjusting to supervision in the community. (372.05)

Community Education Services:  Includes local regional vocational centers, adult basis education centers, and public schools. (389)

Community Emergency Notification Lists: A list of community members, neighboring correctional facilities, and others to be determined by the superintendent, to be notified in the event of an emergency. (26.05)

Community Justice:  A movement to increase involvement with the community in the criminal justice system.  Community justice is manifested in a variety of ways including the justice system being more responsive to safety issues in the community to involvement in justice processes like Vermont’s reparative probation program, which uses citizens to provide the primary service of the reparative program (a restorative process to address the needs of the person harmed by the criminal behavior and make amends to the community). (501.01)

Community Liaison Committee: A board of community members, examples of membership is local and State Police representatives, State Representatives, City/Town Clerk and coordinated by the Superintendent. (26.05)

Community Placement Address or Home Address: the actual residence of an offender who is living in the community while being supervised by the department. (256)

Community Recreation:  The process of providing for enrichment of the life of the total community by providing for the constructive use of leisure.  Its objective is to provide leisure opportunities that contribute to the social, physical, educational, cultural and general well being of the community and its people.  Recreation opportunities are provided by commercial, private (voluntary), and public agencies within the community. (308) 

Community Reparative Board:  A group of citizens appointed by the Commissioner of Corrections to serve on a board for purposes of meeting with offenders and victims, if appropriate, and developing reparative activities for offenders who are sentenced to the program.  (501.02)

Community Restitution:  An intermediate sanction program in the reparative track in which an offender performs community work service on a Community Service Team or agency supervised team for up to 60 days.  The program is deigned to be an alternative to a short incarcerative sentence. (339.01)

Community Service Team:  A group of offenders on community based sanctions, supervised by a trained team leader.  Their purpose is to perform work service for government and non-profit agencies.  Offenders (who work without pay) participate on the service team as a way of making amends to the community for their criminal conduct. (407.01, 424.05)

Community Supervision:  Oversight of an offender in the Department’s custody in the community where the offender is released from a correctional facility into the community under conditions established by the Department. (502.01)

Compassionate Leave Furlough: The approval of an inmate to leave a correctional facility for a short period of time to attend a funeral of a relative or visit a critically ill relative. Inmate remains on the facility headcount. (372.03)

Compelling Governmental Interest: Overriding concerns of the Department of Corrections that must be addressed, using the least restrictive means, regardless of other issues or requests.  These include, but are not limited to, safety, security, health, and discipline. (380.01 – 1/08)

Completed Staff Work: Any written work by a department employee that requires no further revision or approval. (254.01)

Computer Network:  The interconnection of remote user terminals with a computer through communication lines, or a complex consisting of two or more interconnected computers. (257.01)

Computer System:  A set of connected computer equipment, devices, and software. (257.01)

Computer Workstation:  A personal computer or a computer terminal. (257.01)

Conditional Re-entry: A furlough by which a sentenced offender is released to the community under supervision at or beyond their minimum release date. (371.05 - 11/07)

Conditions of Supervision:  Each legal status directs offender behavior through a series of written mandates covering risk control, risk reduction, and restorative supervision expectations.  These conditions established by legal means, when not complied with by offenders, becomes the basis of violations.  This can be done by arrest, citation or return to custody. (413.06)

Confidential Informant:  A source of information whose identity must remain confidential for security of safety reasons. (410.01, 410.03)

Confidential Information:  Case records unless access is provided for in Directive 254.01; records dealing with the detection and investigation of crime; treatment records unless access is provided for in Directive 254.01; records obtained from the Vermont Criminal Information Center (unless the Commissioner of Public Safety expressly approved disclosure); home or business addresses and home or business telephone numbers; names and/or identity of confidential informants referenced in a disciplinary report; information related to victims, such as their names, home or business addresses, home or business telephone numbers; whether a victim has requested notification of an offender’s parole hearings or an offender’s release to the community; “blue” notes; names of other offenders in treatment records when the request for access is for records of the subject of treatment, and as provided in 28 VSA ss204(d), pre-sentence reports, pre-parole reports, or supervisory history of probationers or employees prepared by an employee of the Department except that disclosure is permitted in the following circumstances: (1) a court order is issued in compliance with 28 VSA ss204 (d) removing the confidentiality of such records; or (2) criminal justice personnel and AHS employees are seeking access to supervision records for the purposes of protection of children or investigating/prosecuting offenses against children. (254.01)

Confidentiality Regulations: Rules adopted pursuant to a duly enacted law pertaining to the transmittal of information, which could be used to identify an individual who sought or received a service. (254.03)

Conspiracy: Agreeing with one or more persons to participate in an act prohibited by this directive and any one of those people’s acts in furtherance of the conspiracy. (410.01)

Contact Provider:  The department employee, team member or volunteer involved making a collateral or offender contact. (371.17)

Contact Range:  The frequency range of planned contacts with or about offenders by supervision staff is indicated by the combination of supervision track, assessment of the offender'’ supervision needs and specific service requirements of a program.  The range spans the minimum required and the maximum allowed under this directive.  The maximum establishes a limit for the normal use of staff resources. (371.17)

Contact Visit: A meeting between an inmate and a visitor which is not separated by a screen or solid glass partition. (327.01)

Continuance: Postponement of a hearing for good cause shown either by the Department or the inmate. (410.01, 410.03)

Contraband: Anything not authorized to be in an inmate’s possession; used in an unauthorized or prohibited manner, altered in any way; or in excess of allowable limits. (interim procedure on Contraband Classification and Disposition, 410.01)

Contracted Provider: An individual or organization that provides services to offenders pursuant to a contract for services with the Department of Corrections. (254.03, 371.06))

Contracted Providers:  A group or individual with specialized training, skill, or licensure who is under contract with the Department to provide their specialized services to offenders in the DOC’s risk management programs. (426.02)

Contracted Work Site:  An agency supervised work site where the cost of supervision is shared between the DOC and the government or charitable agency. (424.05)

Contractor:  Individual or entity providing a service to the state by agreement between an authorized representative of the State and individual or organization, no employer-employee relationship exists. (126)

Contractual Purchased Services: These are services, which are necessary and are predictable in specific aspects of need, source, frequency, etc., to allow a contract to be drawn.  Any such predicable service must be acquired by contract. (202)

Contraindication: Something (such as a symptom or condition) that makes a particular treatment or procedure inadvisable. (413.01, 413.11, 410.01, 410.03)

Control Advantage:  The approach to potential conflict situations where an assessment is made by staff to ensure that training and staff numbers ensure the likelihood, that if physical control/restraint is used that staff would safely prevail. (413.06)

Conviction:  A judgment of guilty following a verdict or a finding of guilt, a plea of guilty, or a plea of nolo contendere to the criminal laws of this state. (256)

Core Competency: Fire safety, conflict resolution inclusive of control and restraint and Non-Abusive Physical and Psychological Intervention (NAPPI), suicide prevention, and first aid, including CPR, which must be demonstrated on an annual basis. (107.01)

Correctional Academy Administrator: A fulltime classified employee responsible for all phases of the Academy, who works under the direction of the Department’s Director of Human Resource Development. The Academy Administrator will serve as the appointing authority for those enrolled in the residential aspect of the program. (106.05, 11/07)

Correctional Officer:  In compliance with statute, this includes Correctional Services Specialist (CSS), Community Correctional Officers (CCO) and other correctional officers (CO) who might be involved in the supervision of offenders in the community. (413.06)

Correctional Programs: A set of coordinated activities, services, and practices implemented by the Department to achieve specific and pre-defined results, as mandated by statute and/or the Department’s strategic plan. (52.01)

Correctional Recreation:  The application of the recreation and leisure process in a correctional environment for the purpose of enhancing leisure awareness and leisure skills to facilitate offender rehabilitation.  Recreation can take the form of active or passive, formal or informal, individual or group activity.  Whether an inmate is expending a great deal of physical energy, creating or relaxing, the outcome should emphasize constructive leisure experiences. (308)

Correctional Services Specialist (CSS):  Caseworker in Community Correctional Services Center (CCSC), Court and Reparative Services Units (CRSU), and facilities who provide counseling, treatment, supervision, classification services, and case management. (371.04)

Correctional Services Specialist (CSS): Correctional Services Specialist; a staff role both in facilities and field offices, also referred to as Caseworker (facility) or Probation/Parole Officer (PO in the field). Field and facility Correctional Services Specialists share responsibility for case co-management for offenders assigned to their caseload. (371.05 – 11/07)

Correctional Supervision:  Exerting custody and control of an offender consistent with their legal and custody status. (424.05)

Corrections Training Advisory Board: A Commissioner-appointed group whose members meet periodically to assist the Academy Administrator to plan, review, evaluate, and recommend training plans and courses. (106.05 - 11/07)

Correctional Treatment Programs:  Programs that address life functions, addictions, cognition, and behaviors associated with criminal behavior.  These programs traditionally include, but are not limited to the Vermont Treatment Program for Sexual Aggressors (VTPSA), cognitive self change (CSC)/ Pathways, ISAP and IDAP.  It is the goal of correctional programming to apply evidence-based interventions and practices to reduce criminality, particularly violence. (371.08, 371.11, 371.12)

Corrective Action Plan:  A plan by a facility to address any deficiencies discovered in a security/compliance audit. (403.01 - 9/07)

Court and Reparative Services Unit:  A unit in a field office that provides services to the court such as monitoring the conditions of probation, collections of fines, fees and restitution, preparation of pre-sentence and intermediate sanction reports, and submission of violation and discharge reports.  The unit is also responsible, through its leadership, for providing the court and the criminal justice system with technical assistance in sentencing to the Department’s correctional programs.  Besides court services, the CRSU administers programs in the Departments reparative services track such as Reparative Probation and Community Restitution.  In CRSU’s that are at a site that does not have a Community Correctional Services Center, staff at the CRSU will also supervise high and medium-high supervision level offenders on probation, parole and furlough. (339.01, 501.02)

Court Order: A valid order signed by a judge or clerk of a court based upon a showing that access should be granted in a particular instance.  A subpoena, even one signed by a judge, is not a “court-order” required by 28 VSA ss 601 (10) and this policy.  A court order is valid only if the Department of Corrections was notified and had an opportunity to respond before the order was issued. (254)

Criminal Conduct:  Behavior or lack of behavior that breaks the criminal code of Vermont or the United States.  This behavior is inherently a violation of supervision. (413.06)

Criminal History:  Records in the possession of the department that pertain to any past criminal offense(s), conviction(s), or sentence(s) of any offender currently on furlough. (256)

Criminal History Information:  Documents, forms, reports, or data of a specific offender currently or formerly under supervision by the Department, or currently or formerly confined in any Department correctional facility, that pertain to that offender’s involvement in the criminal justice system, including but not limited to arrest/search warrants, court orders, indictments, information or formal charges, pre-sentence reports, Intermediate Sanction Reports, pre-parole reports, supervisory history of probationers and parolees, investigations, pleadings in criminal proceedings, pleas, motions, citations, summons, appearance bonds, notice/receipts of bail, a court order or mittimus, and records of judicial proceedings, (255)

Criminal Justice Entities: Any entity authorized to engage in community policing, or any entity established, in whole or part, with any public monies for the purpose of addressing community safety, prevention of crime, rights, and needs of victims, or the reintegration of offenders. (256)

Criminal Justice Personnel: Any employee or officer of any court, state or federal agency or sub-unit involved in any activity relating to the detection or investigation of any crime, the prosecution of any person charged with any crime or violation of conditions of probation/parole, or the identification, collection, storage or dissemination of any information related to criminal activities, except that this does not include counsel appointed for or retained by an offender in a criminal prosecution of probation/parole proceeding. (254.01)

Criminal History Record Information: Is defined as the formal listing of certain dates, agencies, and events in the individual’s involvement in the criminal justice system.  The events included in criminal history records are arrests, detentions, indictments, information or formal charges, dispositions, sentencing, admission to and release from custody, opening and closing of cases. (51)

Criminal Physical Evidence: Any item or substance required to substantiate or challenge any criminal charge or be presented at a due process hearing. (interim procedure for Contraband Classification and Disposition)

Criminogenic Need Areas:  Offender need areas, which are related to criminal conduct and which, when addressed in correctional treatment, reduce the overall or specific risk for recidivism.  Substance abuse is an example of a criminogenic need; low self-esteem is not. (371.05 – 11/07, 371.12)

Criterion Scoring Tape:  A video taped LSI-R, which is shown to trainees for purposes of evaluating their skills in accurately scoring the LSI-R.  Successful completion of this exercise is a requirement for certification by the DOC in the independent use of the tool. (371.07)

Cultural Activities:  Those activities that are devoted to the arts, including such activities as music, drama, dance. (308)

Curriculum:  The learning objectives and activities offered by the education agency. (389)

Custody:  Under continuous escort or continuous physical control of: (1) Vermont Department of Corrections’ employees; or (2) volunteers; or (3) contracted employees of the Department of Corrections. (502.01)

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