In the past week, the House passed a variety of bills that had been voted out of the Judiciary Committee. One such bill would ensure that States Attorneys file cases involving juveniles in the Family Division of state court, where certain confidentiality and other procedural protections are in place, rather than in adult criminal court, which lacks such protections (H.95). Another bill would make it a crime to disseminate sexually explicit photographs or videos of individuals online without their consent, even if the subject had consented to the taking of the photograph or video (H.105 as amended). A third bill would make it easier to prosecute home improvement fraud (H.483).

The Judiciary Committee took testimony on a bill passed out of the Senate that would modify procedures related to placement on the Sex Offender Registry (S.13). Currently, the Department of Public Safety administers the Registry, making decisions as to the posting of an offender’s information to the Registry before his release from incarceration. The bill would instead have the court make determinations related to an offender’s inclusion on the Registry at the time of sentencing, deciding whether the offender should be placed on the Registry and, if so, for how long. In addition, the bill provides a procedure to allow individuals to challenge the information on, or to request removal from, the Registry. These changes were prompted by audits of Registry’s error-rate, which were performed to determine whether address information would be included on the Internet version of the Registry. The Committee is considering what Registry error rates would be acceptable to allow an individual’s address information to be placed on the Internet Registry, which would be widely available to the public.

In addition, the Committee has taken up a bill relating to criminal justice reform (H.221). This bill would, among other changes, reduce the number of crimes punishable as felonies; eliminate jail time for non-violent offenders; prevent people from being kept in jail at the end of their sentence due to lack of housing; expand parole eligibility for individuals who have serious medical conditions, were sentenced for an offense committed as a juvenile, or are 65 years of age or older; and eliminate incarceration for violations of parole conditions that are not new crimes. The overall aim of the bill is to reduce unnecessary incarceration and thus reduce Vermont’s prison population and its associated costs. It represents a start in updating the 19th and 20th century solutions in Vermont’s criminal code that are currently used to address our 21st century problems.

Judiciary also took testimony on the enforcement provisions of the water bill (H.35). It has made recommendations to the Committee on Fish, Wildlife, and Water Resources suggesting changes to those provisions of the bill. In addition, Judiciary started its consideration of the Child Protection Bill, (S.9), participating in a joint hearing with the Human Services Committee.

Judiciary took testimony from and worked with the State Court Administrator and Chief Superior Judge to evaluate efficiencies that could lead to savings in the Justice System. For example, the state courts are considering an initiative to start conducting arraignments by video conferencing, which would produce savings from decreased need to transport defendants and for Court security. The Committee provided its various proposals related to Court savings to the Committees on Ways and Means and Appropriations.