How a former Vermont inmate works to help others and change the system

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – A former Vermont inmate who turned her life round now works to assist others like her discover a higher path, and her expertise is having an impression on inmates and the system.

In case you ask anybody who has frolicked behind bars, they almost certainly don’t wish to relive that point being locked up. However Ashley Messier, who spent a number of years as an inmate, commonly heads again contained in the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility.

“This was my bunk. I used to be in right here with one different particular person. So, once I was incarcerated in February of 2015, this was my house,” Messier stated.

From her outdated cell to the household space the place she frolicked along with her daughter, Messier walks by the power the place she spent a number of years.

Ashley Messier: That is my handprint and that is my oldest daughter Lina’s handprint.

Reporter Ike Bendavid: You’re seeing this, you’re touching it. What goes by your thoughts?

Ashley Messier: A mix of issues. It brings up for me a sense of accountability, at all times attempting to maintain within the forefront of my thoughts the impact of my incarceration, my dependancy, the issues that led me to incarceration.

Messier says the story of how she ended up in jail began with an abusive childhood, surviving sexual assault as a younger lady and– like so many others within the facility– substance abuse. Hers was an dependancy to prescription capsules.

“Whenever you wrestle with substance use, you sort of get clear, relapse, get clear, relapse,” she stated.

Whereas caught in that cycle, she fed her dependancy by cashing checks that didn’t belong to her. Finally, she was caught, convicted and despatched to the ladies’s jail in South Burlington.

Whereas inside reflecting on her life and household, Messier made a promise to assist herself and others by sharing her experiences.

“I made a dedication that I used to be going to commit some sort of change and I used to be going to return again and pull different ladies out of right here with me,” she stated.

She stayed true to that promise, working to get herself again on her toes to the purpose the place she now walks into the jail to mentor and speak with the ladies inside at present.

“I do quite a lot of work, not for pay however I did it as a result of I do know the worth of the ladies on this constructing. I’ve seen a number of the most wonderful expertise, a number of the kindest, most-compassionate individuals,” she stated.

Messier wears many hats to assist the ladies inside, with management roles together with the Ladies’s Justice and Freedom Initiative, the Felony Authorized Committee and the Division of Corrections Monitoring Committee.

“I’ve seen a lot that it has triggered a lot religion in me for having religion within the individuals on this constructing that I come again right here by alternative,” she stated.

The pandemic hindered her potential over the previous two years to have in-person visits however now Messier says that’s choosing again up.

She says, if something, she’s there to be a voice for these inside and somebody present inmates can belief and speak to. This comes because the state continues to discover reforms after allegations of sexual abuse within the ladies’s jail.

She additionally desires to deliver accountability and adjusted conduct to these inside, and share her perspective with the state.

“In case you stroll right into a facility, most individuals are going to say, ‘I didn’t do it, I’m harmless,’” she stated.

Messier feels the state has to do a greater job addressing what individuals go house to once they get out and reenter society.

“They will stroll again into the identical choices into the neighborhood, so you must clear up the recidivism downside and the neighborhood integration downside,” she stated.

Corrections Commissioner Nick Deml believes former inmates like Messier are a key a part of the way forward for corrections in Vermont.

“Previously incarcerated particular person brings a singular perspective and distinctive insights on these issues,” Deml stated. “If we’re going to design the system, and might you construct the system that we would like, it’s going to should be knowledgeable by all these views, together with in and virtually most significantly the incarcerated inhabitants and what they really feel and expertise once they’re in our system.”

Till then, Messier plans to maintain utilizing classes from her time as an inmate and assist those that are at present locked up.

“The incarcerated people on this constructing see me as anyone they will belief,” she stated. “I’m considered one of them, I’m not a supplier, I didn’t simply learn a university textbook, I don’t simply do that for the paycheck: That is my life.”

Messier says there’s at all times extra work to do in reform and reentry into the neighborhood. She has issues that folks outdoors of Chittenden County don’t have sufficient sources, as issues like housing are a difficulty.

Corrections officers say they’re listening to her, however in addition they really feel they’ve techniques in place to assist inmates statewide.

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