On Thursday, in Chittenden County criminal court, before hearings in courtroom 3B kicked off, public defender Sandra Lee walked over to prosecutor Zach Weight to ask for some help. Her client needed housing, and Lee wondered if Pathways Vermont, a local social services agency, could help.
Weight quickly replied: Pathways did have an open bed, and reserving it wouldn’t be a problem.
As her client sat down, Lee leaned over to tell her the good news: While she’d have to go back to prison today, she would be out soon, and there would be a bed waiting for her.
For the past three months, defendants in Chittenden County who’ve picked up five or more cases have ended up here in courtroom 3B — a special docket aimed at clearing a backlog of mostly low-level cases.
When Gov. Phil Scott first launched the new initiative in Chittenden County, it came as part of his broader effort to stem crime in Burlington. The assumption among some members of Vermont’s legal community was this would fast-track the path to prison for repeat offenders.
Three months later, Scott is hailing the program as a success and asking lawmakers to set aside half a million dollars to bring the model to other counties. He’s not alone in declaring victory, but the outcomes many are trumpeting have less to do with prison time and more to do with interactions like the one that took place between Lee and Weight last Thursday.
“That means those people are getting services that they weren't getting before. We've got them more ingrained in their community with actual support.”Zach Weight, special prosecutor, Chittenden County
Weight, who the governor appointed as a special prosecutor for the docket, said in an interview last week that there was “a lot of apprehension” when the effort first launched.
“I think that people felt maybe that the governor had a good idea, but they were concerned. … ‘Well, we're just going to throw people in prison,’” Weight said. “That's not really how the law works, right? There is due process, there's consideration for people's rights.”
When the so-called “community accountability court” launched, about 100 people were placed on the docket with more than 900 cases. By one metric, at least, the court has made serious headway.
By Friday, Weight’s last day with the court, about 78% of those cases had been resolved, making a significant dent in a backlog that has plagued the county.
“Now that's a data point on a piece of paper, right — but what does that mean?” Weight said.
It has not, he pointed out, meant solely relying on incarceration.
When the new docket launched, about half of the people with pending cases were released back to the community, 28% were incarcerated, and arrest warrants were issued for the rest. As of last week, eight defendants who had cases pending in the accountability court were incarcerated, according to Weight.
Of the 79 people who’ve had cases resolved, 21 received prison sentences, according to data collected by Weight. Eight got split sentences, where they’d serve some prison time and then go on probation. Just over a third of defendants were placed on some kind of community supervision, with probation being the most common.
Weight dismissed 74 cases, about 8% of the total cases in the docket, according to the data.
But more importantly, Weight argued, are the services the court has been able to provide to defendants while their cases are pending.
Employees from organizations like the Howard Center and Pathways Vermont were embedded in the courtroom each day, which allowed people to quickly connect with housing support, addiction treatment or mental health treatment.
Weight also developed a release form to lift state and federal privacy restrictions that barred service providers from talking about their clients. That allowed organizations to communicate about individuals and provide more comprehensive wrap around services, Weight said.
The prosecutor noted that there were still safeguards to protect people’s privacy.
“That means those people are getting services that they weren't getting before,” Weight said. “We've got them more ingrained in their community with actual support.”
It’s too soon to say whether those supports will keep people out of the criminal justice system long-term, but other stakeholders agree that the model has so far proven effective.
“We're doing a lot more social work than attorneys were doing 20 or 30 years ago. The model for how we do court probably needs to change.”Josh O’Hara, supervising attorney, Chittenden County Public Defender
Clearing up the backlog has lightened the load for Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George and her deputies. In recent years, prosecutors in George’s office have juggled caseloads of around 400. Last month, most caseloads were in the 200s, George said.
“That in itself, is just a massive relief for the attorneys in the office,” she said.
George said they’re planning to keep the accountability docket going, though it’ll be scaled back to one day a week, rather than five.
“I’m optimistic about this model. I really am,” said Josh O’Hara, supervising attorney at the Chittenden County Public Defender office.
O’Hara’s office was able to bring in a case management group to help their clients, and he said having social service agencies there every day has been key.
“We're doing a lot more social work than attorneys were doing 20 or 30 years ago,” O’Hara said. “The model for how we do court probably needs to change.”
