Both chambers of the Vermont Legislature have passed a bill that would create a new supervision program for people released from state custody while awaiting criminal trials. It’s one of a slate of bills lawmakers are weighing in the final days of the session that they say respond to widespread concerns over crime in the state.
Vermont courts already allow certain defendants to be detained in their homes, rather than in prison, while waiting for their cases to be resolved. The program has typically been used as an alternative to incarceration for people who can’t afford to post bail.
But S.195, as it has passed both bodies, would create a new supervision framework for alleged offenders whom lawmakers believe pose significant threats to public safety.
A court could order someone to be placed in this new “pretrial supervision program” if they have five or more pending criminal dockets or have violated other court-ordered conditions of release.
Under both of the bills, supervision officers could check in with people on the phone or at in-person meetings. The House also proposed electronic monitoring measures such as ankle bracelets as an option officers could use.
The Senate’s bill proposed a broader expansion of electronic monitoring through a program run by the state Department of Corrections. The House took that measure out, though, citing concerns that the technology could be deployed inequitably.
Rep. Martin LaLonde, D-South Burlington, chairs the House Judiciary Committee. He said on the House floor last week that the state is doing an “inadequate” job supervising many alleged offenders. That means courts may not know if someone is committing additional crimes, he said, or if they’re getting important pretrial social services.
This problem, he said, is exacerbated by the state’s stubborn backlog of pending court cases — which has delayed many people’s cases by months, if not years.
“While (a defendant) awaits his trial, he may get in further trouble with the law. That is in fact what is currently happening in Vermont and is causing significant concern with the public,” LaLonde said on the floor, later adding that the bill would “help to ensure accountability while the alleged offender awaits resolution of their case.”
Speaking in support of S.195 earlier this year, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, agreed. The bill has also drawn support from law enforcement leaders including the Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs.
“I’ve had lots of complaints from merchants in my area about endless retail theft, and their belief that many of these people are already violating conditions of release,” Baruth said, speaking in the Senate Judiciary Committee in March. “And from town officials, same thing — that they’re dealing with the same people again and again and again.”
Meanwhile, lawmakers have said the pretrial supervision program would keep more people from being held in prisons. As of last week, about 450 people were detained in the state waiting for a trial, said Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield, on the House floor.
But some advocates have testified to lawmakers in recent weeks that the bill could actually have the opposite effect. Falko Schilling, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, noted that defendants can be detained for violating conditions of their pretrial release. If the state bolsters its surveillance, he said in an interview Wednesday, it’s likely to uncover more such violations — and thus, could return more people behind bars.
The Vermont Office of Racial Equity also testified last month that expanded surveillance would likely exacerbate racial disparities in the criminal justice system.
The office pointed to data from Vermont’s Crime Research Group showing that, between 2021 and 2022, Black defendants were more likely to be either held without bail, or released on conditions, than white defendants. White defendants, the data shows, were more likely to be released without such conditions.
Schilling also said he disagrees with a proposal in both bills to allow a $200 cap on bail to be lifted in certain cases. Gov. Phil Scott, for one, has pushed for lifting the cap.
Both bills would, in different ways, allow a court to lift that cap for certain minor offenses if an alleged offender had already violated conditions of release in a different case.
Neither version of the bill included a funding mechanism for its proposals, though the Department of Corrections estimated last month that standing up a pretrial supervision program would cost about $890,000.
In the version of this year’s budget bill that cleared a joint legislative panel Tuesday, budget writers agreed to appropriate about $650,000 for the program in the 2025 fiscal year.
The House’s version of S.195, which it passed on Tuesday, now heads back to the Senate for members to consider the other chamber’s changes.
