What's New at VSC

What's in a Number?

On a daily basis, statistics are recorded at VSC. In early February, included among the 50 or more statistcs I recorded on that day were check marks by "Call to family," "call to attorney," "call to employer," "property pick up/stored," "mail pick up," "cards," "clothing," "Jail/Misc," "Snacks," "Taxes" The numbers are important as an indicator of our performance as required by several of our funders - but that is behind those numbers is out soul.

Let me describe what was behind those numbers on that day.

Call to Family: An inmate asked us to call his mom to tell her that it's not her fault that he turned out the way he did. He asked us to tell her that he's trying to change and that when he does, he hopes "that she is alive to see it."

Call to Attorney: An inmate called us to find out who his attorney was and, once we found out, would we call him and ask him to visit so they could talk about his case.

Call to Employer: 2 check marks here. One inmate asked us to call his employer to see if his job could be held. This inmate expected to released in one week. We called - job will be held. Another inmate asked us to call his employer to see if employer would give his last paycheck to his wife. Employer said he would, but only if inmate wrote him and asked that the check be given to his wife.

Mail pick up: An ex-offender comes to VSC to pick up his mail. He is one of several offenders, currently homeless, who use our address for mailing purposes until they can locate a permanent address.

Property pick up/stored: 2 check marks here. Inmate asked us to pick up his winter jacket at the jail. Most property is destroyed by the jail after 15 days unless it is picked up by someone. We picked up his coat and will keep it for him until he is released. Another inmate asked us to pick up his wallet at the police district, take $45 of the less than $50 contained in the wallet and pay his monthly storage fee for "every thing I have in this world" - we did.

"Snacks" - several check marks here. When I arrived in our office in the morning, Sarah had welcomed 3 recent releases from the Jail with a breakfast of waffles and orange juice.

"Taxes" - An inmate asked for our help in completing his taxes, both DC and federal. He had filled out a VSC form with information that we needed. Betty had contacted his employer, who redirected his W2 to VSC. Betty had turned all the paperwork over to Aking, our CPA volunteer, to prepare the taxes for this inmate.

"Clothing" - The wife of an inmate came in to chose a winter coat for their youn son

"Cards" - lots of entries here since Valentine's Day is approaching

"Jail/Misc." Billy stayed late on a Friday night to wait for a man who has sentenced to weekends in the Jail. This was the first of 10 weekends he was to spend and Billy had him come to our office to talk and thereafter drove him to the Jail.

Our Student Volunteers

Ava and Emily biked to VSC from American University and wanted to know if they could help. Crystal, from Bowie State is an intern with VSC. These girls have been so helpful to us. They have completed Department of Corrections training and, as a result, they visit with inmates directly at the Jail and help them with their requests for service. All of them collected coats for our winter coat drive for the children of inmates.

Our Finances

We are grateful to the DC City Council for including funding for us in the amount of $130,000 in the recently passed Supplemental Appropriations Act. This funding mirrors our loss of funding through Byrne which came without warning last July, following 5 years of support and excellent evaluations.