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Lt. Gov. John Rodgers will hold a press conference at the State House on Tuesday, Jan. 21, to call attention to what he describes as a dangerous gap in Vermont’s criminal justice and mental health systems — one that allows some violent offenders to delay or avoid prosecution altogether.
Speaking at this public meeting will be Bennington mom Kelly Carroll, whose daughter was murdered and who advocates against misuse of mental health defenses and resulting long delays in the court system.
Rodgers, joined by crime victims’ advocates and family members of murder victims, will speak at 2 p.m. in Room 11 about the state’s lack of a secure forensic psychiatric facility and the absence of a formal competency restoration process. Vermont is one of only two states in the nation without such a system.
“As it stands today, Vermont has created a loophole that allows violent offenders to sit in legal limbo for years,” Rodgers said in a statement ahead of the event. “That is not justice for victims, and it’s not public safety. We can care about mental health while still holding people accountable for serious crimes.”
Under current law and practice, defendants found incompetent to stand trial — or who refuse court-ordered evaluations — can remain in the mental health system indefinitely. Because Vermont lacks a secure forensic treatment facility, some individuals charged with violent crimes, including murder, are never restored to competency and never face trial. Defense attorneys have repeatedly opposed the creation of a formal competency restoration program, citing civil liberties concerns.
Critics say the result is a system that retraumatizes victims’ families while allowing repeat offenders to avoid legal resolution.
“This process leaves families in limbo,” Rodgers said. “They don’t get answers, they don’t get closure, and in many cases they’re cut off entirely from information once a defendant is transferred to the mental health system.”
The press conference will include remarks from Kelly Carroll, the mother of Emily Hamann of Bennington, who was murdered in 2019 and whose case remains unresolved. Carroll later founded Voices of Vermont Victims to advocate for reform.
“As a Vermonter I can’t begin to tell you how hurt I am at the way the some in the Vermont House treat victims of violent mental health related crimes. As a mom, I’m devastated. I’m no lawyer and I know I can get some things mixed up but I have listened to testimony after testimony from several House committees over these past 3 years and never have I felt as “irrelevant” as I have this past month listening to the House Human Services Committee’s testimony on S.192,” Carroll said in a statement to the Legislature April 23, 2024 in support of S.192, a civil commitment procedure bill that was passed into law that year.
Also speaking will be Joanne Kortendick, sister of Kathleen Smith of Burlington, another murder victim, and Jennifer Poehlmann, executive director of the Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services.
Rodgers said reform must balance mental health treatment with accountability and public safety, noting that other states have successfully implemented secure forensic facilities and competency restoration programs without violating civil rights.
“This is not about punishment,” Rodgers said. “It’s about ensuring that people receive appropriate treatment, that courts can function, and that victims are not erased from the process.”
The Jan. 21 press conference will take place at 2 p.m. in Room 11 at the Vermont State House.
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Categories: Legislation, Public Safety
It doesn’t help that we have weaponized mental health, turning it from a condition to an excuse. If I had a nickel every time someone said to me that “I need to be more understanding,” I would be loaded. Understanding of what? My own son is mentally challenged yet he knows the difference between right and wrong. Stop making it an excuse, people.
“Under current law and practice, defendants found incompetent to stand trial — or who refuse court-ordered evaluations — can remain in the mental health system indefinitely.” But, sometimes they are just allowed walk out and face no legal jeopardy, because they are “ok now”. This is nothing new, even when Vermont did have a “treatment facility”. The poster child for this nonsense is from a case that goes back to 1980, Louis Hines. He walked over to and clubbed a young lady to death while she enjoyed her lunch on the grass at the top of Burlington’s Church Street. Held in the Waterbury State Hospital for 25 years, he now walks a free man because his paranoid schizophrenia is deemed treated “as long as he takes his medication”.
And how many tragic stories have we read in which they didn’t take their medication?
I sympathize with the agony mentally ill people go through and how hellish it must be for them. I don’t denigrate them for their illness.
However, when they have committed violent criminal activity and hurt people, sympathy should never be confused with or be allowed to eliminate personal responsibility and punishment. Both justice AND public safety need to be served.
I went to my phone calendar to enter this event. It looks like Jan 20 is Wednesday. Is this press conference on Tuesday Jan 20, or Wednesday Jan 21, or am I reading my phone calendar or this news piece incorrectly?
I think Rodgers is right and wrong.
He’s right about these two things:
“…that courts can function, and that victims are not erased from the process.”
He’s absolutely dead wrong about this:
“This is not about punishment…”
And this is why Vermont is a playground for violent criminals: it’s 98% about “treatment” and “rehabilitation,” when it so desperately needs to be about punishment SO THAT VICTIMS ARE NOT ERASED FROM THE PROCESS!
Let offenders—mentally ill or not—who commit these kind of heinous crimes receive the maximum punishments. AND THEN, if you want them to receive “treatment” or be “rehabilitated,” let it be behind bars for the rest of their lives or whatever the maximum of their sentence is to that it IS about justice AND public safety.
And for sex offenders who do anything to children, anecdotally I understand that they are unable to be rehabilitated. If they have gotten to the point that they would lure, exploit, sexually harm, or do anything to a child, their brains are wired to where they need to be unable to ever have the opportunity to get near a child for the rest of their lives.
How many of the stories we read on VDC of a heinous sex crime by a perpetrator against children reveals that he had already been convicted and imprisoned, but served his sentence. The problem is that these criminals have stolen and destroyed the lives of all the children they have deceived and horrifically taken advantage of and assaulted. What about the life sentences and death penalties these criminals have meted out to their young victims? Apart from the grace of God, how do these children ever recover from this kind of evil?
Our legislators ought to be pushing for more severe maximums for these type of offenders.
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