Judiciary Committee debates whether failing court-ordered domestic violence program should be a crime

The Judiciary Committee on May 7 heard competing views about a provision in the draft bill that would allow a judge to order a defendant to complete a domestic violence accountability program as part of relief-from-abuse (RFA) orders and whether failure to complete the program should be treated as a crime. Representatives of the state’s attorneys and sheriffs said they were concerned about removing criminal enforcement; Carolyn Ganson, chair of the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Commission and assistant attorney general, and Charlotte Glisserman, policy director at the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, urged the committee to adopt the change and monitor outcomes.

A representative for the Office of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs told the committee they did not support language that would make failure to complete programming categorically noncriminal and warned that some violations of…