Many people in Windham County look on in frustration as they watch the police arrest people suspected of breaking into cars, selling drugs, or stealing from stores - and then, in what seems like a minute, seeing them back on the streets.
There's even a sarcastic term for the process: "catch and release," a phrase that once was used only for fish.
"Backlog" is the usual one-word explanation for this problem. It means the cases accumulate faster than they can be addressed. Courts are understaffed and overworked, suspected evildoers abound, and it can take way over a year for the criminal justice system to adjudicate even one suspect so, if found guilty, they feel the consequences of their actions.
"Typically, a case takes on average a year or two, and that's moving fast," Windham County state Sen. Nader Hashim, told The Commons.
Hashim, who works as an attorney in Brattleboro, serves as the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He explains that when a suspect is put back on the streets, it means they're either not a flight risk or that they haven't been charged with an offense that's serious, like a violent felony or other crime that carries with it a potential for life imprisonment.
"If somebody is committing a misdemeanor and they get arrested, it's expected that they receive their citation and not be detained," Hashim said. "In Vermont, we can only hold people without bail if they commit serious violence, or if there's no set of conditions that can keep people safe, or if they commit an offense that carries with it a term of life in prison, which would be murder, sexual assault, or aggravated assault - something else that's really serious."
This scenario cannot comfort a store owner who sees a shoplifter returned to the street.
"It doesn't serve the purpose of protecting people that these misdemeanors are done to," Hashim said.
The problem, he noted, "isn't unique to Vermont."
"Typically, throughout the country, under the Eighth Amendment, people are not going to be held in prison for misdemeanors unless there's a risk of flight, or perhaps they violated probation," Hashim continued. "When it comes to holding people without bail, under the law it has to be very significant circumstances in which someone can have their freedom taken away before they are convicted by a jury."
But changes have been made to the court system this year, Hashim said, and not in the favor of those charged with crimes. In fact, Vermont's criminal justice system is now functioning better than it has in some time, Hashim said.
"I wouldn't say that it's fixed, but there was a small amount of progress in addressing the backlog last year," he added. "Last year, seven counties saw decreases in the backlog, and seven saw an increase. But overall, the number of cases decreased by a small amount."
What are the changes?
"You've got the judges," Hashim said. "We have to make sure that we've got a full bench. We also have to make sure that the judges have the administrative staff."
Statewide, six new judges have been confirmed. Some are filling vacancies and retirements, but that gives Vermont a grand total of 38 judges to move the court system along.
"Those judges that we confirmed just this year are starting their job," Hashim said. "They started just two months ago, essentially performing their duties. But it will take a bit of time before we start seeing substantial impacts on the backlog."
One superior court judge in northwestern Vermont is retiring, but otherwise, the benches are full, Hashim said.
"So a small amount of progress is being made," he said. "It kind of goes up and down over time, but I do think that we'll see additional progress over the next year or two as these judges get up to speed."
Windham County now has a full bench of three judges. The county also falls under the jurisdiction of a new court starting up in Windsor County, which will give it four judges in total.
Not just a lack of judges
It is important, Hashim said, to understand that Vermont's backlog was caused not only by too few judges. The state's attorneys who bring these cases to court are also overworked and understaffed, he said, and the public defenders - who provide legal representation for defendants whose financial situation qualifies them - are understaffed and overworked.
"It's not going to matter how many judges you have," Hashim said. "There really has to be a balance between the prosecutors, the defenders, and the judges to make sure that all three parts of the courtroom are adequately resourced and able to do their jobs in an effective manner."
The Judiciary Committee is looking to support additional positions and resources to the state attorneys' offices, Hashim said.
"We're also expanding the pre-trial services through the attorney general and are trying to make that statewide," Hashim said. "And the Department of Corrections also started their pre-trial supervision program."
As described in the text of that law, enacted in 2024 with pilot programs in Essex and Orleans counties, pretrial supervision is designed "to assist eligible people through the use of evidence-based strategies to improve pretrial compliance with conditions of release, to coordinate and support the provision of pretrial services when appropriate, to ensure attendance at court appearances, and to decrease the potential to recidivate while awaiting trial."
Participants must have at least five pending dockets and "pose a risk of nonappearance at court hearings, a risk of flight, or a risk of endangering the public," says the law, which provides for pre-trial check-ins via phone, videoconference, in-person meetings, electronic monitoring, or other means.
"I believe in January [2026], we're going to wait and see how that works out," Hashim said. "If there's good data from that, we'll see about providing some additional funding to expand the pre-trial supervision program to other parts of the state."
Right now, the general budget bill, H.493, is moving through the Legislature, and the Judiciary Committee has recently sent a budget request letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee, which "hears from all the different committees about what their priorities are," Hashim said.
"Ultimately, the Appropriations Committee has the final say, but they take into consideration our requests," he noted. The requests sometimes are different from the ones originally proposed, but were changed after hearing testimony.
Among Judiciary's budget priorities are:
• Restoring $650,000 to the base budget for both state's attorneys and sheriffs to eliminate vacancy savings. (A total of $1.3 million.)
• Adding three admin-paralegal support staff for $325,000. (Original request was for six.)
• Adding two victim advocates for $425,000. (Original request was for four.)
• Adding three state transport deputies for $425,000. (Original request was for six.)
• Funds to support the loss of VOCA (Victims of Crime Act): $1.1 million. (The federal Office for Victims of Crimes anticipates a 45% decrease in VOCA funds for the 2024 fiscal year, likely ending essential services such as hotlines and legal assistance for survivors.)
• Adding one new staff attorney investigator to the Human Rights Commission: $130,000. (Original request was three new staff attorney investigators.)
• Funding to preserve the core services of the Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence: $1.2 million.
A matter of time
"I know a lot of people tend to think that increasing the penalty is going to deter crime," said Hashim, a former trooper with the Vermont State Police. "That's generally not the case. For example, if there is a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail for a certain offense, and somebody is thinking of committing that offense, whether it's drug trafficking or burglary, they're not going to suddenly change their minds if the maximum penalty goes up to 25 years."
What would change a potential criminal's mind is whether law enforcement is in the area and whether they're actually going to see consequences for their actions in a timely manner.
"I'm talking about within a year, rather than within four or five years," Hashim said. "I think those are some of the biggest things that we can do. From where I'm sitting, as the chair of Judiciary, I think that making sure that both law enforcement and human services are staffed and well-funded is essential."
The backlog is only a part of the problem Vermont has in keeping offenders off the street.
"If our courts are moving faster and prosecutors and defenders are coming together and resolving cases more promptly, then it can help in addressing the backlog, which will in turn help in addressing the timely disposition of the case," Hashim said.
"A major part in deterring crime is making sure that there's a faster resolution to a case," he said.
This News item by Joyce Marcel was written for The Commons.