State agencies back limited forensic facility and competency-restoration plan; clarify safeguards and timelines
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Summary
Agency of Human Services, Department of Mental Health and Department of Corrections told the Judiciary committee they support creating a secure forensic option and competency-restoration pathway focused on public safety and due process, while proposing operational, clinical and legal refinements including longer evaluation timelines, centralized evaluator contracts, and annual reassessments.
Kristin McLaurin, deputy secretary at the Agency of Human Services, told the Judiciary committee on Feb. 5 that the agency supports a proposal to create a secure forensic facility within the Department of Corrections paired with a competency-restoration process intended to protect public safety and uphold due process.
"We support a forensic facility within the Department of Corrections paired with clear competency restoration process," McLaurin said, framing the plan as a way to keep people who cannot proceed to trial due to competency issues out of cycles between courts, hospitals and corrections.
Karen Barber, general counsel for the Department of Mental Health, told senators the plan is narrowly targeted and not intended to replace hospital-level care or existing Act 248 processes. Barber said the bill would focus on people who do not meet inpatient-hospitalization criteria or Act 248 thresholds and identified three groups the proposal addresses: people charged with misdemeanors who repeatedly enter competency evaluations, a small number of defendants accused of the most serious felonies who cannot be restored under current systems, and the rare person found not guilty by reason of insanity who may still pose public-safety concerns.
Barber described several specific refinements DMH recommends. For misdemeanor cases, she proposed limiting courts’ ability to order competency evaluations unless defendants fail to complete an outpatient diversion option; the aim is to connect people with treatment and provide accountability, rather than use competency as a substitute for clinical treatment. On serious felony cases, Barber said the proposal would apply primarily to crimes punishable by life sentences and estimated the caseload at roughly "3 to 5 individuals a year." She also recommended adopting forensic risk-assessment tools to guide discharge decisions and moving court reassessments from five years to annually.
Barber urged changes to competency-evaluation practice: she proposed extending the statutory timeline for inpatient court-ordered evaluations from 30 days to 120 days so clinicians have time to stabilize and treat patients before an evaluation, and suggested that the state consolidate evaluator contracting through Buildings and General Services to obtain consistent rates. She emphasized that these timing and contracting changes are about improving the clinical meaningfulness of evaluations, not addressing a current wait list; DMH said there is no existing wait list for inpatient or outpatient competency evaluations.
Barber also flagged legal and confidentiality limits around victim access to treatment information. "We cannot support the bill as written, because it attempts to allow victims to..." she said, noting federal and state privacy laws protect health information and that victim involvement needs to be reconciled with HIPAA and existing confidentiality rules. She recommended drafting language that preserves victim voice in appropriate forensic criminal-process contexts while complying with privacy law.
John Murad, interim commissioner of the Vermont Department of Corrections, said DOC supports additional forensic and competency-restoration tools. He cited recent high-profile killings whose accused are in custody to underscore public-safety concerns and said DOC currently relies on its medical contractor, Wellpath, for clinical services; Wellpath operates a facility in Massachusetts with relevant experience. Murad cautioned the department is currently under capacity and staffing stress — he estimated DOC was 12–13% understaffed overall and frontline custody ranks nearer a 20% deficit — and said DOC does not now have a separate wing dedicated solely to forensic restoration placements.
Committee members asked about voluntariness of diversion, placement of restored defendants, burdens of proof for release after insanity findings, and how victim participation could be structured without violating confidentiality. AHS and DMH said they would provide proposed statutory language and work with the committee, and the committee scheduled follow-up testimony from state’s attorneys, defenders and the attorney general.
The hearing ended with the committee requesting draft language and scheduling further markup and discussion.
