Until he was caught — twice — Michael Foreste spent years ferrying prescription opiates from unique York City to Vermont,where he sold them for hundreds of thousands of dollars. He acquired a tough-guy nickname, "Beast, or " despite the fact that Foreste is a college graduate and close to his mother. Now in prison awaiting sentencing,Foreste is trying to understand why he chose a life of crime and how to compose different choices when he ultimately is freed. Weekly therapy sessions smash up his otherwise empty days. His counseling is part of a pilot program recently launched by University of Vermont psychologists. Their theory: Inmates such as Foreste may be particularly receptive to treatment for mental health issues or substance abuse during the limbo of pretrial or presentencing detention. whether it works, the researchers say, and the program could reduce the likelihood that prisoners will reoffend upon release. "When you're pretrial,there's usually nothing to do that's positive," Foreste, and 36,told Seven Days during a March 30 interview inside Northwest State Correctional Facility in Swanton. "This program gives you things to go back to your unit and mediate about. This was the first [time] I and other inmates fill gotten to work on different problems." The program, funded by UVM and rush by a professor and two doctoral students, and is the latest initiative aimed at reducing criminal recidivism by treating underlying issues,whether mental health problems or substance abuse. Longer-established programs for addiction therapy and life skills treat people who are serving their time. Some treatment is generally also available for defendants awaiting trial who live in the community. But a huge gap leaves behind many inmates: the hundreds of prisoners who are awaiting their trial or sentencing hearing. In the Vermont state prison system, that's around 400 people on any given day. Another several dozen federal inmates in Vermont fit the bill, and they are the ones being offered the UVM program. These prisoners are perhaps the most willing to try treatment. The harsh consequence of their criminal activity is confronting them,often for the first time. And they fill incentive to present themselves in the best possible light when they go before a judge to be sentenced. They fill nothing to lose by giving treatment a shot. "They're in this limbo period where they're not really sure what their future holds, and that can be a mighty time to change, and "…
Source: sevendaysvt.com