When Kayla Gallant was terminated early from probation after being incarcerated for a month, she took a moment to reflect on the things that helped her along the way. She was able to get into rehab quickly because she was covered by her mother’s private insurance. Additionally, she reached out to Interaction to tell us how the reparative board meetings offered by the restorative justice team, had a positive impact. 

Reparative board panels are often a condition of probation, where a group of volunteer community members meets with individuals over several months to discuss the harm caused by their actions. “I thought it was going to be just another group of people telling me how terrible I was, and blaming me for everything. But it wasn’t, I was really shocked,” says Kayla. “They were open to hearing how I came to make these mistakes and treated me like a person… It was very different from the way the justice system treats people.”

Kayla left home at 17 and began dating a boy from Brattleboro. “It turns out he was a heroin addict, and he got me hooked. The rest is history.” She often says her crime was being “poor and homeless. The only person who offered me a place to stay was dealing drugs.” She was only 20 when one day, the apartment was raided. “I was in the bathroom getting high, and they charged me with all the drugs that were in the bathroom.” The reparative board helped Kayla come to terms with what happened. “I was putting myself in dire situations.”

Now living in scenic Colorado, Kayla moved with her family and has been sober for three years. “It’s been a huge help to change areas. It gave me a fresh start. I can do things based on my merit and not my past.” She works as a peer recovery coach and recently reached out to Interaction to thank and speak with the community members who helped her. “The whole war on drugs is a war on our people, a war on American citizens. People are thrown in jail just for possession or distribution… They’re people who made missteps in their lives, became addicts, and are trying to support those habits. I think the reparative board, wanting to understand how these things happen and looking to make changes for people, was a really positive thing to see. Otherwise, it’s pretty bleak.”

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