Institution-based normalization: bringing humanizing, destigmatizing, and harm reduction focused concepts inside the walls

ICPA 2022 Annual Conference Presentation by Amanda Woolford, Christopher Arbour, and Jeff Morin (ICPA2022-PID088)

Authors

Amanda Woolford

Director of Women's Services, Maine Department of Corrections, USA

Amanda Woolford is currently the Director of Women’s Services for the Maine Department of Corrections, a role she has held for the past 10 years. During that time, she has been a champion for justice-involved women, constantly looking for ways to support women overcoming limitations of the system and challenging the status quo. She is passionate about increasing positive outcomes and opportunities for her clients, and to positively impact the likelihood that justice-involved women successfully and permanently transition out of the system.
Amanda’s career started in case management, while at Northeastern University in Boston. She deepened her understanding of the importance of individualized approaches, and that the pathways in and out of incarceration are much different for men then they are for women. Amanda has also worked in Juvenile Probation, gaining a better grasp of the systems that surround and intersect with each justice involved individual. This is when she began to challenge and advocate for change. Amanda also earned her master’s degree from Boston University in Criminal Justice.
Acknowledging the role that women play in their children’s lives, and the impact of incarceration on the family bond, Amanda has worked tirelessly to increase the contact and communication between mothers and children, working hard to remove barriers and increase access to in-person visitation in all forms. She was a leader in introducing video visitation and bonding visits, along with other engagement strategies, for women and children involved in the system. Understanding the unique challenges incarceration in Maine faces, due to only having one facility for all of Maine’s incarcerated women can make access to children and families an extreme hardship in such a large geographical area.
Amanda takes out of the box approaches to treatment and interactions throughout the individual’s sentence. Amanda is passionate about the work she does for the justice involved women in Maine.

Christopher Arbour

Acting Senior Deputy Warden, Maine Correctional Center, USA

Chris Arbour is currently the Acting Senior Deputy Warden at the Maine Correctional Center. Prior to this position, he was the Regional Correctional Administrator for the Maine Department of Corrections, Region 1, a position that he held for over 6 years.
After graduating from the University of Southern Maine he realized that those involved in the Justice system needed an advocate and voice. Chris started his career, over 20 years ago, in case management then moved to his role as a Probation and Parole Officer, supervising specialty caseloads from Adult Drug Court, Problem Sexual Behaviors as well as general supervision.
Chris is very dedicated to ensuring clients under the Department’s supervision receive every opportunity to be successful and live healthy lives, focusing on positive outcomes.
Chris is engaged with residents and clients on their transition into their communities. He is involved in supporting the recovery communities and Medication for Substance Use Disorders. Breaking down barriers and eliminating stigmas associated with substance use disorders and justice involved community members is a focus of the work that he does. Everyone is on a journey in life, normalizing and humanizing the journey for clients is priority.
He coaches, guides and mentors his staff to enhance and engage the future of the Department by helping develop future leaders and encourage positive relationships with the communities we serve.

Jeff Morin

Warden, Mountain View Correctional Facility, Maine Department of Corrections, USA

Jeff Morin is Maine DOC's most tenured Warden, having led correctional facilities of all security levels. His experience spans adult and juvenile populations, and has long-focused on properly intervening and treating residents in the most effective and modern ways. Jeff continues to be a champion of the Maine Model of Corrections and leads a facility that has implemented key strategies to normalize, humanize, and destigmatize corrections in Maine.

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