Mat-Su Reentry Coalition meeting draws out several sides of the ongoing story of crime, punishment and redemption

WASILLA— Mat-Su Reentry Coalition coordinator Janice Weiss invited the public and several speakers from varying backgrounds and points of view Wednesday to discuss reentry to society and the many “hot button issues” that go with the territory.

“We all deal with complaints right?” Alaska State Trooper captain Tony April said during the meeting.

The Mat-Su Housing and Homelessness Coalition spawned the Reentry Coalition several years ago. The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority funds the Mat-Su coalition and other coalitions in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau in 2015. Weiss said that each coalition operates separately, with a steering team of community members and one fiscal agent. The Mat-Su’s fiscal agent is Valley Charities and John Rozzi is the executive director. The steering team consists of nine current members and is chaired by Bill Aube, executive director of Daybreak; Kelly McDonald, a field probation officer with the Department of Corrections, and Sarah Angol, an institutional probation officer.

“The milestones have included the bringing together of community members who are all working towards the same goal, a safer place to live. Since more than 90 percent of the people incarcerated will be released, it just makes sense that assisting reentrants in becoming healthy, productive members of our community will lead to less crime and fewer victims,” Weiss said.

April was one of several speakers at the meeting. During his talk, he asked the crowd to ponder several hypothetic situations, the kind he faces in reality on a daily basis.

April laid out a hypothetical complaint, “why aren’t the troopers responding?”

He attempted to clear up common frustrations he hears from residents. One of the top complaints he gets daily is that the troopers aren’t responding to calls.

“A majority of my day is dealing with frivolous complaints. It’s not because people don’t have legitimate complaints. They assume,” April said. “They don’t know what they don’t know.”

They don’t want to hear that. But can I as the captain say sir, mam, I hear your complaint, but I can’t deal with that. Can I say that?

“No,” several people from the crowd replied.

He called Knik-Goose Bay Road a “hot button issue” that is going around the community dialogues.

“Think of how many calls I have received, just on KGB,” April said. “Here’s one of the comments I get out there. Why aren’t the troopers patrolling out here? Well, I can tell you, I’ve got Glennallen, I have Talkeetna, I have the Butte, Meadow Lakes, Williwaw. You name it.”

He said that he and his team cover an area the size of West Virginia and he’s got, “a sergeant and eight troopers on a good day.”

April implored the room to come and visit him down at the post. He suggested working closer with AST.

“Why not? If you serve your community, we’re involved in your community, why not be involved with the troopers? If we engage each other, we will understand. I need you, just like you need us,” April said.

April opened the floor for questions. The first question was, “so how do we prioritize our communities when the troopers don’t show up?”

“It’s not going to start until we build a relationship. I don’t care what kind of programs you create, I don’t care what kind of money you bring in. So when you build down your barriers you say hey, some one’s at the door… start with that neighbor, know that neighbor, that you may know or may not know,” April said.

Belinda Bohanan has been an AST office assistant for more than 10 years and currently coordinates the neighborhood watch nonprofit program in the Valley, taking it on after the borough dropped the service about five years ago.

“I said, ‘ok, this is my calling,” Bohanan recalled during her speaker introduction.

Without the borough overseeing Neighborhood Watch operations, Bohanan volunteers her time to meet with various neighborhoods and groups to help them learn how to start a watch in their area.

“We need to be vigilant, not vigilantes,” she said.

Since then, she’s given at least 100 presentations to various communities across the Mat-Su Valley. She urged everyone there to familiarize themselves with their neighborhoods, inside and out.

“We’ve got to watch out for ourselves,” Bohanan said. “As these people are getting better, we need to treat them okay. This is what we need this is what we need to do in our communities. This is what you have. (These are) all the services available. If they don’t choose and they continue to steal from people we have to be prepared. We just can’t sit back and expect the troopers to be there all the time.”

Bohanan said that she lost her son to a heroin overdose and her first husband was a heroin addict. She said that she was familiar with the struggles on the streets.

“There are so many agencies here to help, but it’s whether that person wants help or not,” Bohanan said.

When it was Vicki Chaffin Wallner’s turn to speak, she stated by saying she wanted to break, “pre-conceived notions” about her. She created Stop Valley Thieves, a Facebook group with a current count of 17,226 members. She said that many people may think of her as some ill-tempered alarmists who sits around on her computer all day, lambasting people and stirring up arguments, suspects and members alike.

Chaffin Wallner, who is now 28 years sober, said that she’s spent time sponsoring people addicted to drugs and alcohol as well as fostering children.

“I lost my foster grandson, 19 years old, a weekend drug party and he ended up getting shot in the face, point blank. My brother died two years ago with two rocks of crack in his pocket and I have a step son I prison for probably still a pretty long time,” she said.

Chaffin Wallner said that the original idea for Stop Valley Thieves started simply as a way for her to stay up with her friends and family while attempting to deter, record and report various criminal activities, especially in their neighborhoods. The group grew in popularity and something else came with it.

“I had no idea, the viciousness that goes on the Internet,” Chaffin Walker said.

She said she talked to people who made “vigilante” comments and during one of these conversations the person asked her, “Who made you the hall monitor?” She isn’t the only admin or “hall monitor” anymore. There are currently eight who monitor the page, including Chaffin Wallner. She said that the negativity wasn’t just on her site.

She described the various “spin off” crime groups as “free for alls” and said that her admins try to heavily monitor the flow of posts and comments.

“Be civil with one another,” Chaffin Wallner said.

Chaffin Wallner noted that her group was able to recover many stolen items, including vehicles. She said they’ve even recovered a semi-truck at one point.

“It’s just eyes and ears,” she said.

Chaffin Wallner noted that during one “internet chase” following the alleged theft involving two snowmachines on a trailer. She said that eventually, the suspects dropped it because it “got so hot they abandoned it.”

“So it works but that’s part of people just talking to one another,” Chaffin Wallner said.

She said that in order for the problems with crime to stop, the problems with addiction and mental illness have to be dealt with first.

“It’s a full circle. We have to help these people. We can’t drop them off at the Palmer post and say here you go because otherwise, we are recycling the problem,” Chaffin Walker said.

She said as a victim of crime herself, she understands the frustration and fear people are dealing with on a daily basis.

“I will tell you the community I deal with at large (is) really, really angry. And, they’re feeling like there’s no justice, they feel like no one cares… So when you’re dealing with your clients [addressing _ and the reentry program] and the people you’re working with, you have to understand that you’re dealing with a community that has become enraged,” Chaffin Wallner said.

The coalition is actively seeking further input and participation from the general public to discuss problems and solutions for the people integrating back into society.

“As a community, we have to work together. People have to start watching what they leave in their car or what they’ve got on their front lawn, showboating. If you showboat, you have your motorcycle or snow machine in your front line it’s going to go away. That’s just the way it is. The drugs and alcohol are all so bad right now,” Chaffin Wallner said.

In order to continue these types of conversations, the Mat-Su Reentry Coalition will have a full-day event on Jan. 9, 2019.

“I know our coalition is doing what it is meant to do when I see providers who have not talked, meeting and finding out from each other how they can work together to improve their delivery of services,” Weiss said.

There are many areas of reentry that we still need to work on. One involves the children of incarcerated parents. The coalition has had meetings attended by DOC staff and Office of Children’s Services staff who have had the opportunity now to talk about procedures involving the children and how these can be improved, which will benefit staff of both agencies as well as the parents and the children.