CHILD PROTECTION
Child protection issues will likely dominate both the judiciary and human services committees this session.
After the deaths of two children in early 2014, lawmakers convened a panel to scrutinize the child protection system and spent the rest of the year holding hearings and nine listening sessions across the state.
Legislative attorneys are now drafting a bill that incorporates recommendations from the panel.
“The one major issue is child protection. We’re going to deal with that right off the bat,” said Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The child protection system in Vermont includes the Department for Children and Families, the courts, police, prosecutors, third-party service agencies, health care providers and volunteer caregivers, so bills on this topic are likely to visit several committees.
Three reports issued this fall suggested changes to DCF and other aspects of the system. DCF has added staff but looming budget cuts may hurt the department in other ways.
SEX-OFFENDER REGISTRY PROBLEMS
Sears said another topic he hopes to address are problems with the sex-offender registry, which have been known for a while and were discussed this fall during meetings of a corrections oversight committee.
The online registry has many shortcomings, identified in a 2010 state audit. Some offenders are missing from the registry while other people are incorrectly labeled as offenders.
Seven Days has reported extensively on the issue. Several departments are working to correct the problems.
OUT-OF-STATE PRISONS
Another topic likely to surface in January is the state’s practice of sending about 500 of its prisoners to prisons in Kentucky and Arizona, run by private prison contractor Corrections Corporation of America.
The DOC recently has been under increased pressure because of publicity by a citizens group that is preparing to file a bill to start a process to return the prisoners to Vermont.
Meanwhile the corrections department is working on its own strategies to reduce the dependence on out-of-state beds.
A court ruling in June said it is unconstitutional to send men but not women to out-of-state prisons because as a result they do not have equal opportunities to visit family.
GUNS
The Brattleboro-based Gun Sense Vermont is advocating for a bill to require criminal background checks for gun purchases in Vermont. The state has among the most lax gun laws in the nation.
Whether larger issues such as budget woes and DCF will stymie this matter, or whether there is political will to see a bill through to law, remains to be seen. The idea has met with strong pushback from gun rights groups.
MARIJUANA
State Sen. David Zuckerman, P/D-Chittenden, plans to introduce a bill to legalize marijuana, as he did last year. That bill failed but another that called for a study of legalization passed.
The RAND Corp. is working on that study, due in January, that is expected to estimate potential tax revenue as well as other impacts of legalization. Lawmakers saw an outline of the study’s scope in November.
House Speaker Shap Smith is against the idea. Gov. Peter Shumlin has said he is not against it but does not believe Vermont should rush into legalization.
RISK ASSESSMENT ROLLOUT
The signature bill from the 2014 session created a risk assessment and needs screening process and a mechanism to encourage prosecutors to offer alternative justice programs to alleged offenders.
That program, overseen by the corrections department, is beginning to roll out. Lawmakers will inevitably want updates from state officials about progress.
A training for judges took place recently and the DOC in August hired a coordinator to oversee the statewide network of pretrial service programs.
BUDGET CUTS AND SOCIAL SERVICES
Social services notoriously suffer during budget cuts and this year is expected to be an especially tight year. The Agency of Human Services makes up 40 percent of state government.
House Human Services Chairwoman Ann Pugh has said social service providers, and recipients, should not expect to survive cuts unscathed.
“I think it is unrealistic to think that Vermonters who live in poverty and Vermonters who you know have disabilities and who are served by the Agency of Human Services will be held harmless by the budget cuts,” Pugh said last month.
Pugh said there is likely to be much cutting of efficiencies that will affect the “boots on the ground.”
“I’m not asking anyone to accept or say something is OK, but to close our eyes and say it’s not going to happen … it’s not realistic,” she said.
ADDICTION TREATMENT
Both Senate and House social services committees will focus on systematizing the state’s drug and alcohol addiction treatment system, Pugh said.
Although there is now a relatively formal system for opiate addiction treatment, the same statutory framework does not exist for other types of addiction.
“Alcohol and drugs go beyond opiates,” Pugh said.
The Senate Health and Welfare Committee is expected to take the lead on that bill, she said.
ELDERLY AND MENTAL HEALTH
Issues facing elderly Vermonters will also be a focus of the House Human Services Committee, Pugh said. Those include insufficient retirement funds, lack of family to support them and health care issues, she said.
Pugh also wants to focus on the mental health system, for adults and children, she said.