Committee keeps DOC as backstop for public incapacitation, orders expansion plan and reporting

The Corrections & Institutions Committee met April 17 and agreed to retain a repeal in S.36 that removes a statutory prohibition on using Department of Corrections (DOC) facilities to house people found publicly incapacitated, while adding amendments to expand community public-incapacitated services and to require reportbacks from state agencies.

Committee members and witnesses told the committee that community “public inebriate” or public-incapacitated programs — the community alternative to holding someone in booking while they sober — have declined in parts of the state and that emergency departments and correctional booking areas have become fallback locations. Committee members said testimony from the Vermont Department of Corrections, law enforcement, emergency department clinicians, and operators of community programs led them to conclude DOC should remain available as a limited backstop while community capacity is rebuilt.

Why it mat…