UVM researcher tells Vermont Senate committee PRIN surveys reveal staffing gaps and weak reentry preparedness

Dr. Abby Crocker, associate professor of statistics at the University of Vermont and director of the university’s Justice Research Center, briefed the Vermont Senate Institutions Committee on Jan. 14 on the Prison Research and Innovation Network (PRIN) and its statewide prison surveys and uses of the data.

Crocker said PRIN is a research‑practice partnership between UVM and the Vermont Department of Corrections that centers the lived experience of people inside facilities and staff, produces independent research and creates a structure to translate findings into operational change. "PRIN at a functional level is a research‑practice partnership between UVM and the Department of Corrections," she told the committee.

The surveys were cocreated inside facilities with staff and incarcerated people through focus groups and interviews to identify priority questions. Crocker said PRIN administered two 150‑question surveys (one for staff, one for people who are incarcerated) in person using validated instruments and Likert‑style items. She described unusually high participation and completion: response rates on administration were about 75–85% and those who started often…