- Massachusetts Probation Service
Media Contact for Ribbon cutting ceremony held at new Lowell Community Corrections facility
Coria Holland, Communications Director
Video: Ribbon cutting at the new Lowell Community Corrections Center
Skip this video Ribbon cutting at the new Lowell Community Corrections Center.Lowell, MA — The Office of Community Corrections hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony and Open House on Friday, November 16, at its new 11,000 square-foot Lowell facility located at 33 East Merrimack Street. The site is one of 16 centers across the state.
This new location features a computer lab, five classrooms, break and lunch rooms, as well as storage area for equipment and tools used by the Massachusetts Trial Court Community Service Program. The center is designed to serve about 300 individuals per year sentenced to the Lowell Community Corrections Center where they will receive counseling, drug testing, and may study for their Hi-Set, high school equivalency degree. The center will also support the probation department as a venue for thousands of visits per year for after-hours check-in, drug and alcohol screening and pretrial services. The Office of Community Corrections is working in partnership with the Old Colony YMCA which manages the site.
“The collaboration is in line with the various contributions that are made to this work,” said Probation Commissioner Edward J. Dolan.
The site also has parking and is in walking distance of the Lowell District Court. It is in close proximity to the Department of Transitional Assistance, Middlesex Community College, and Lowell General Hospital.
“We believe in this community. We believe in the City of Lowell and we believe we can have an impact on the City of Lowell by changing the lives of people that come before the court because of poor decision making and struggles with substance use disorder,” said Vincent Lorenti, Director of the Office of Community Corrections which is a division of the Massachusetts Probation Service.
Lorenti said staff is working to make the center’s services “innovative and motivational by engaging in Evidence Based Practices like cognitive behavioral treatment.” The center is working with the University of Massachusetts-Lowell on a project to study opioid cravings and potential monitor and treat them through technology assisted care.
He added, “We want to help people address their substance use disorder and their decision making. To be innovative we will use cognitive behavioral treatment like MRT (Moral Reconation Therapy) and technology-assisted care. Clients will be able to work through a computer program and do it remotely. To be motivational we will acknowledge their good choices and help them make good choices by mastering skills.”
Moral Reconation Therapy or MRT seeks to decrease recidivism among both juvenile and adult criminal offenders by increasing their moral reasoning.
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In the video, from left to right are: Shante Berry,clinician; Vincent J. Marturano, President and Chief Executive Officer at the Old Colony YMCA; Edward J. Dolan, Probation Commissioner; Vincent Lorenti, Director of the Office of Community Corrections; Michael Coelho, Deputy Commissioner-Programs; and Ashley George, Treatment manager.
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