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Legislators are weighing a bill that would standardize how restorative justice programs in each county receive funding from the state and referrals from prosecutors — with the goal of increasing fair access for affected parties.
“We are working to have clear standards and procedures of how (restorative justice) programs are going to be developed across the 14 counties in Vermont, which is not necessarily the case now,” said bill sponsor Rep. Karen Dolan, D-Essex Junction, who also works for the Essex Community Justice Center.
As the six sponsors of the bill, H.645, see it, funding for restorative justice centers is inconsistent and disorganized. Three state entities provide centers grant money — the attorney general’s office, the Department for Children and Families and the Department of Corrections — but there is no current standard for how those bodies allocate the funds.
“They could be giving those grants to all the same entity,” Dolan said. “It’s not necessarily taking into consideration what does the state’s attorney in that county want to do with those referrals.”
“What we’re trying to do is create a dividing line of who funds the restorative justice programming,” she added.
The bill’s organization plans would also help speed up the pandemic-induced backlog in the referral process, said Damien Barnes, the director of Rutland County Community Justice Center.
“We have been getting cases for referrals for reparative panels that are just now being adjudicated and the original harm was caused maybe two or three years ago when the person was originally cited into court,” Barnes said.
This bill promises to both speed up and organize the referral process.
One of the main approaches to this issue is the bill’s goal of defining and putting into statute pre-charge referrals — when a prosecutor refers a case to a restorative justice program rather than filing charges in court, with the goal of encouraging rehabilitation rather than pursuing formal prosecution. State’s attorneys do this already, but no standard practice for the state is codified in law, Dolan said.
“This is going to deflect the criminal justice system,” Dolan said.
Under the bill’s changes, if someone has only been charged — not convicted — their referral would go to the attorney general’s office. After a conviction, the referral would be handled by the Vermont Department of Corrections.
“So, it creates two clear lanes for that,” Dolan.
Dolan believes the bill’s measures would increase access to restorative justice for people accused of crimes.
“It’s not necessarily doing anything to reinvent restorative justice or restorative approaches; it is making it so it is more streamlined access across the state,” Dolan said. “This is trying to get some consistency and also respect the uniqueness of each county.”
Willa Farrell, director of the Office of the Vermont Attorney General’s community justice unit, believes the bill is a good idea.
“There’s a lot of value for having pre-charge referrals and having a timely response to incidents of harm and keeping people out of the court system,” Farrell said.
For the supporters, the goal is to define expectations so state’s attorneys and law enforcement feel confident their referrals will be processed the same way no matter which county they are in.