JUDGE RELUCTANTLY SENDS YOUNG MOTHER TO JAIL

No one wanted Tiffany Loso to go to jail.

But that's just where the 22-year-old mother of three went Friday when
lawyers and the judge debating her case in Rutland District Court decided
it was the only safe place to send her.

"This is a very difficult set of circumstances and I'm not yelling for her
to be in jail," Assistant State's Attorney Peter R. Neary said. "My concern
is we know this person is an addict. We know what her problem is and if we
take her and put her back in the swamp or somewhere else, we're just
inviting a relapse, inviting her to go back to her bad ways."

Loso, in the first trimester of another pregnancy, cried, as did her mother
and grandmother, as she was led out of the courtroom. She was taken to the
Chittenden jail, where she is being held for lack of $25,000 bail. Her next
court appearance is June 14. The decision was hard for the family to
accept, but Judge Nancy Corsones said the ruling was difficult for her as well.

"This is one of the saddest indictments I've ever had to hand down,"
Corsones said moments before deciding the Danby woman's fate.

Loso's case presented some tough questions that were becoming all too
familiar in drug cases, Corsones said. And too many of those questions had
little to do with the law, she said.

Rutland City Police said Loso was drunk May 13 when they found her in a
parked truck on Post Street and arrested her. Police said Loso was in
violation of three conditions of release set by the court for five charges
still pending in court.

Police cited her with violating conditions that she remain at her mother's
Danby home unless accompanied by her mother, submit to alcohol testing
anytime a police officer asks, and not purchase, possess or consume alcohol.

Loso has violated conditions of release 15 times in the last two years,
according to the police report.

Police said Loso had nine Xanax pills in her pocket when they arrested her.
Xanax is a prescription drug used to treat anxiety. Police cited Loso for
possession of a narcotic drug.

But it wasn't Loso's past that prompted Corsones to send her to jail.

The judge said she'd much rather put Loso into a drug treatment program,
but the programs in and around Rutland all came up wanting.

Conifer Park, a secure residential facility in New York state, wasn't an
appropriate option, according to Loso's lawyer, Lorin Duckman. Loso had
already gone through detoxification at the facility and now needed more
one-on-one help, Duckman said.

He wanted the judge to allow Loso to enter an outpatient program offered at
Evergreen Center in Rutland.

Duckman asked the judge to place his client in the care of a local woman
who has boarded several furlough recipients.

But Corsones rejected that suggestion because there was already a woman on
furlough living in the household and she didn't want to add Loso to the mix.

The judge had the same concerns about adding Loso to community living
programs like Serenity House in Wallingford or Grace House in Rutland.
Corsones said she was worried Loso would "poison the well."

The judge's fears were shared by Neary, who said Loso's repeated violations
of her release conditions demonstrated a lack of responsibility for her
actions.

"She's a pathological liar. She has no guilt or remorse for what she's
done," he said. "We certainly can't socialize her if we put her in a cage
with bars on it, but she needs to take responsibility for what she's done
or this is never going to work."

With no other alternatives, Corsones decided to send Loso to jail. But she
said she wasn't happy about it.

"This is so much further away from what I ever thought being a judge would
be," she said. "This is not a question of law at all. This is social work."

"The criminal justice system is simply not designed to fix situations like
this. There ought to be a door to open, but there's no structure and there
is not a place that can address all your needs," Corsones added before
making her ruling.