Senate Judiciary debates S.93’s forensic facility, flags due-process and clinical concerns

Montpelier — The Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 26 reviewed draft S.93, legislation to establish a forensic facility for a narrow class of criminal defendants, and heard testimony that raised constitutional, clinical and procedural questions.

Jack McCullough, a lawyer with Vermont Legal Aid and director of its Mental Health Law Project, told the committee that the bill "shifts the burden" in ways that could risk unlawful deprivation of liberty and that many core protections are not clearly incorporated into the draft. He urged the panel to define what "competency restoration services" would be, how those services differ from current hospital-based treatment, who would provide them and where they would be delivered.

"We do not need this bill to accomplish the purpose of protecting public safety and potentially having defendants go to trial if they can be made competent to stand trial," McCullough said, adding that current psychiatric treatment under the Department of Mental Health often restores competency without a separate forensic facility. He praised one provision — dismissal of many misdemeanor charges — calling it "a really, really good thing"…