Paradigm Shift: A Model for Eliminating Restrictive Housing in the United States

ICPA2023 Presentation by Carol Mici and Kyle Pelletier (ICPA2023-PID057)

Authors

Carol Mici

Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Correction

Carol Mici began her career as a Correction Program Officer in the Massachusetts Department of Correction in 1987. She was promoted several times throughout her career, and in April 2008, she was promoted to Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Classification and in May of 2016 was promoted to Deputy Commissioner of Clinical Services and Reentry. On December 6, 2018, she was named as the Acting Commissioner and on January 22, 2019 Governor Baker appointed Carol as the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Correction, an agency that operates fifteen (15) correctional facilities, employs nearly 4,200 staff, and has an annual budget of $795 million and an inmate census of approximately 6,000.

Carol holds a Bachelor of Arts from Westfield State University with a Major in Psychology/Minor, Criminal Justice and a Masters in Public Administration from Suffolk University, Cum Laude.

Carol is a professional member of the American Correctional Association (ACA), as well as, the Correctional Leadership Association (CLA); a graduate of the Executive Excellence Program with the National Institute of Corrections; and works with several agencies and Sheriff’s Departments across the Commonwealth to promote the vision and mission of the DOC. In September 2020 Carol was voted in by the Correctional Leadership Association Board as the Northeast Region Chair. She is also a member of the International Corrections and Prisons Association (ICPA). She has participated on numerous expert panels, has been a member of several Task Force Committees and Governance Committees throughout her career with the agency.

Kyle Pelletier

Director of Special Programs, Massachusetts Department of Correction

Kyle Pelletier is a seasoned professional who has been working in corrections for 15 years. Prior to her corrections career, she obtained a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice from Northeastern University. She joined the Massachusetts Department of Correction in 2012, but began her career within the Department as vendor staff in 2018, facilitating programming to inmates; she has flourished in a variety of roles, which led to her current position as the Director of Special Programs. In the two years of being Director, she’s assisted the Department in ending restrictive housing, by designing and implementing a system that has evolved from the disciplinary use of restrictive housing into a behavioral assessment and program intervention model. This work started for the female offender population while she was working as the Deputy Superintendent of Reentry for MCI Framingham (Department's female facility), where she led a team that developed and implemented an alternative to restrictive housing specifically for the female offender. This would serve as the framework for her current role. In addition, while working with the women at MCI Framingham, Director Pelletier collaborated with internal and external stakeholders to develop and implement a trauma informed gender specific program that addressed the unique pathways of women into the criminal justice system. For her work at MCI Framingham, she received the Deputy of the year award in 2019 for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the Special Programs Division was initially created to assist with the reform of restrictive housing, Director Pelletier has supported the implementation work of the Emerging Adults model, as these models can serve as a preventive strategy for violent and disruptive behavior. She is currently applying strategies learned from that effort to assist MCI Framingham leadership in the design of a similar opportunity for the female population. Director Pelletier strives to continue to encourage and help the Massachusetts Department of Correction evolve by promoting safer facilities through designing, implementing, and supporting evidence-based program interventions that enhance skills for sustainable change.

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