Dartmouth researchers outline options for Vermont competency restoration program

Dartmouth researchers presented findings to the Vermont House Judiciary Committee on May 20, 2025, laying out options for how the state might address competency to stand trial and restore defendants' capacity to participate in legal proceedings.

The presentation, delivered by JJ Daigle, Emily Liang and Sling Choi from Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences, summarized five New England case studies and proposed six nonexclusive policy pathways ranging from a fully funded formal restoration program to enhanced diversion, treatment courts and community-based services.

The proposal matters because most of the policy choices affect both public safety and individual rights. "We've spent the last eight months studying competency restoration programs," said JJ Daigle, explaining the team's methods and noting that their final brief will be published and circulated shortly. The researchers told the committee that, based on interviews with state officials, "around 80 percent of court cases in Vermont involve individuals who have been diagnosed with mental health or substance use disorders." That figure came from the Department of Corrections, the presenters said.

The research summarized four goals for restoration programs: enable legal proceedings to continue; address underlying mental-health needs; balance public safety with due process; and reduce repeated entry into the criminal justice system. The team compared Connecticut and Rhode Island, which have formal competency restoration programs, with New Hampshire and Massachusetts, which rely on informal or court-clinician models.

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