Criminal Justice & Public Safety

Vermont GOP Chair Paul Dame says it's too early to judge the indictment of former President Donald Trump without having more information. Meanwhile Republican Gov. Phil Scott says it's a "sad day for our country."

Former Vermont State Police trooper Giancarlo DiGenova denied multiple criminal charges related to his work as a police officer.

Another person held at the state prison in Springfield has died. It's the second fatality at Southern State Correctional Facility in a week.

Host Mikaela Lefrak speaks with author Christine Kenneally about her book investigating abuse in Catholic-run orphanages over the last century.

Vermont State Police are investigating the death of a 34-year-old man held at Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield. He’s the fifth incarcerated person to die in Vermont this year.

Over the past decade, Connecticut has been able to cut its prison population in nearly half and criminal justice advocates say that number can go even lower if you think of corrections as rehabilitation. That’s why a group of Connecticut policy makers and thought leaders toured prisons in Norway to learn best practices. Our Accountability Project tagged along to see what the group learned.

This past year, two prisons in Vermont — Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington and Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield — launched a living unit model. The idea is to give those in prison more freedom.

Since the 2020 closure of Woodside — the only juvenile detention center in Vermont — the fight over where to build a new facility to house youth in the criminal justice system has gotten heated. One possible location — Newbury. Local residents there got a chance to weigh in on that proposal during this year’s town meeting.

Gaps in mental health services contributed to the fatal police shooting of a man in Montpelier in 2019, according to a recent report issued by the Mental Health Crisis Response Commission.

After the pandemic halted jury trials in Vermont for more than a year, hundreds of people have languished in prison without being convicted of a crime. And in some cases, people have served longer sentences than they would have otherwise.