Agenda:
Overhaul Vermont's criminal-justice system, especially by continuing to progress in treating addiction and mental illness as health issues instead of incarcerating (saving millions); stop shipping Vermont prisoners to other states; close the spigot on Vermont's funding the corrupt private-prison industry.
Create jobs and economic growth while keeping Vermont "green."
Ensure that Vermonters receive: a livable wage; paid family leave; equal pay for equal work regardless of gender.
Protect the environment; promote renewable energy; reverse climate change to save our region, our Green Mountain State and our planet.
Instill openness and transparency through all branches of state government; strengthen the ethics panel established to oversee the Legislature and ensure that it represents the will of the people rather than special interests.
Promote greater opportunity for Vermonters to attain higher education without massive debt; tilt the scales from Vermont spending more on Corrections than it does on its colleges and universities.
With Vermont’s cannabis legalization taking effect this year, we must establish and support a Vermont-focused taxed and regulated market for both medicinal and adult-use cannabis; this will generate revenues for the state’s coffers on a $200-million-per-year industry that has existed in our state for decades, and will especially help subsidize prevention and treatment for opioid abuse.
About Gordon Bock:
Gordon serves as state director of CURE Vermont, which advocates for effective criminal justice that would reduce crime and recidivism while fighting for the fair, humane and lawful treatment of Vermont’s prisoners, former prisoners and loved ones.
In 2008, Gordon successfully concluded a federal lawsuit against the Vermont Department of Corrections (DOC) on religious-practice rights of the incarcerated. That same year, Vermont DOC designated Gordon as prisoner advocate on the Corrections Citizens’ Advisory Group, which met regularly with DOC senior staff until DOC disbanded it in 2012. He has since 2010 been a DOC volunteer, assisting statewide in better facilitating prisoners’ religious requests.
Gordon, who hails from The Bronx and then lived on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, moved to Vermont in 1990, settling in Northfield in 1998.
Gordon has a B.A. from Columbia (political science and urban studies), and an M.S. from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, where he later became an adjunct professor. While attending journalism school, Gordon received a certificate for also completing Columbia’s International Fellows program.
Gordon became an award-winning reporter, writer and editor in New York for United Press International, U.S. News & World Report, Business Week and TIME. He later attended Vermont Law School and in 2013 received a certificate in non-profit management from Marlboro College.
Gordon proudly served as a petty officer in the U.S. Coast Guard, assigned to Station Burlington with a port security rating during Desert Storm, and was at the same time an auxiliary trooper with the Vermont State Police. Gordon achieved Vermont’s Firefighter I certification and served with the fire departments in Montpelier and Roxbury, becoming accredited as an emergency-care attendant and in hazardous materials operations.
He has been an instructor in: advanced first aid and CPR with the American Red Cross; boating safety (Vermont Department of Public Safety); hunter firearms safety (Vermont Department of Fish & Game); ServSafe (food sanitation and safety).
Gordon was on the search committee selected by the Northfield select board that helped choose a Northfield police chief in 2017. He has worked in sales and marketing for such enterprises as Schwan’s, Penn Veterinary Supply and the Professional Fire Fighters of Vermont.
In 1992, Gordon was among the cadre of Montpelier firefighters awarded a certificate of meritorious assistance by the City of Montpelier for work in that year’s flood. By appointment of Governor Howard Dean, Gordon was also a justice of the peace in Montpelier.
In 1980, the New York City Police Department bestowed upon Gordon its top civilian commendation for chasing and apprehending a fleeing mugger in Manhattan’s Times Square.
He is a proud hockey Dad, baseball Dad, soccer Dad, orchestra Dad … yes, even a Girl Scouts Dad … who lives in Northfield.
Call Gordon: 802-371-9932