Vermont

Between 2007 and 2008, Vermont first used a data-driven Justice Reinvestment approach to address the state’s rising prison population, reduce corrections spending, and reinvest savings in strategies to improve public safety. As a result of this effort, Vermont passed Justice Reinvestment legislation in 2008, which improved screening and assessment for behavioral health treatment needs, increased access to community-based substance addiction treatment programs, focused supervision resources on people most likely to reoffend, and expanded transitional housing opportunities and job training programs.

Between 2009 and 2013, the state reinvested $6.3 million in transitional housing, electronic monitoring, and substance addiction treatment in prisons and in the community. Vermont’s incarcerated population fell 16 percent between FY2008 and FY2018, from 2,053 to 1,724.

Despite these successes, however, there are a number of key issues that the state continues to grapple with. The state’s pretrial population increased 30 percent between 2008 and 2018, and prison facilities are operating 138 percent above their design capacity. Between 2007 and 2017, all categories of violent crime increased 33 percent, representing a modest growth in the volume of these crimes but a noticeable trend across the state. Although 80 percent of the total population under state correctional control is on probation or parole, the state is currently unable to identify certain key data, including how many people on probation are revoked to jail or prison, what types of violations people are revoked for, and their length of stay when they return. Finally, the state’s drug overdose death rate increased 115 percent—from 10.8 deaths per 100,000 residents to 23.2 deaths—between 2007 and 2017, which indicates a need for behavioral health treatment and other social supports, including medication assisted treatment for people in the criminal justice system.

To build on prior efforts and address these current challenges, state leaders again embarked on a Justice Reinvestment approach in the summer of 2019 with intensive technical assistance from The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center and support from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance. On July 12, 2019, Governor Phil Scott issued an executive order creating the Justice Reinvestment II Working Group, which includes representatives from all three branches of state government as well as criminal justice stakeholders. In the coming months, the working group will analyze findings and develop policy options for the legislature’s consideration in 2020.

Justice Reinvestment (since 2019)

• Justice Reinvestment in Vermont: First Presentation (August 26, 2019): The first presentation to the Vermont Justice Reinvestment II Working Group introduces the Justice Reinvestment process and examines criminal justice and behavioral health trends and challenges in Vermont.
• Justice Reinvestment in Vermont: Second Presentation (October 15, 2019): The second presentation to the Vermont Justice Reinvestment II Working Group focuses on Vermont’s adult criminal justice system design and programs, including front-end community-based alternatives to incarceration, reentry programming and services, and supervision statuses and structures.
• Justice Reinvestment in Vermont: Third Presentation (November 15, 2019): The third presentation to the Vermont Justice Reinvestment II Working Group focuses on crime and sentencing trends to help Vermont better understand the front-end system dynamics of who is coming into the criminal justice system and where their case dispositions lead them.
• Justice Reinvestment in Vermont: Fourth Presentation (December 16, 2019): The fourth presentation to the Vermont Justice Reinvestment II Working Group focuses on analysis of DOC data, including prison and supervision population trends, as well as assessments of community supervision and behavioral health interventions.
• Justice Reinvestment in Vermont: Final Presentation (January 22, 2020): The fifth and final presentation to Vermont’s Justice Reinvestment II Working Group provides an overview of the project’s key findings and recommendations.

Justice Reinvestment Archive Publications (2008–2012)

• Increasing Public Safety and Generating Savings: Options for Vermont Policymakers (January 7, 2008)
• Justice Reinvestment State Brief: Vermont (September 15, 2008)
• Vermont State Corrections Population Trends (April 15, 2012)