Lawmakers hear testimony on bill to create narrow forensic competency‑restoration program

On April 22, during a legislative hearing, state officials, corrections representatives and victims urged lawmakers to address what they called a longstanding gap in Vermont’s handling of people found incompetent to stand trial.

Karen Barber, general counsel for the Department of Mental Health, told the committee that “Vermont is an outlier, and that we don't have any sort of forensic system of care.” Barber said the state has no formal competency‑restoration program and that competency is a legal — not clinical — determination. She said courts must hold a hearing within 21 days of a finding of incompetence but that the current system can leave people “stuck in competency” with no secure, treatment‑focused placement when their clinical needs do not meet hospital admission thresholds.

The bill discussed — S.193 — would authorize a narrowly focused secure setting for a very small number of people each year (Barber estimated “maybe 3 to 5 a year”) who are accused of the most serious offenses and who, because of either developmental disability,…