by Dave Soulia, for FYIVT.com
For years, Vermont’s courts had a simple rule built into their standard Conditions of Release Order:
Condition 3 — “You must not be charged with or have probable cause found for a new offense while this case is open.”
That rule — effectively, don’t get rearrested while awaiting trial — was part of Form 344, used by the state judiciary since at least the 1990s. Then, in April 2025, the Judiciary rolled out a new form, 200-00344, and Condition 3 quietly vanished.
From Form 344 to 200-00344
The old form (Rev. 7/09 SML) always began with three commonsense directives:
- You must come to court when you are told to.
- You must give your attorney and the court clerk your address and phone number, and if it changes you must tell them immediately.
- You must not be charged with or have probable cause found for a new offense while this case is open.
But the 2025 update changed the numbering. Under the new Form 200-00344, Condition 3 now simply reads: “You must come to Court on [date].” The prohibition on being charged with a new offense is gone.
This raises an obvious question: why weren’t the first three conditions — appear in court, provide contact information, and avoid rearrest — written into statute as mandatory for every defendant? And why was the third condition, after decades of use, explicitly removed?
Why Optional? Why Removed?
Vermont law, specifically 13 V.S.A. § 7554, requires judges to impose the least restrictive conditions necessary to ensure a defendant’s appearance and protect the public. The law does not mandate any single condition. Condition 3 may have been seen as too broad — an automatic penalty that conflicted with the statute’s precision requirement.
Still, for many Vermonters, it defies common sense: what’s the purpose of pretrial release if the court doesn’t explicitly bar a defendant from reoffending while awaiting trial?
The Data: 2019–March 2025
The Vermont Judiciary supplied condition-of-release data covering 1995–2025, but earlier years appear incomplete, likely due to gaps in digitization. From 2019 onward, however, the data is robust, covering more than 36,500 criminal cases statewide through March 2025.
- Total cases with Condition 3: 730 out of 36,539 (~2.0%).
- First modern use in this dataset: 17 cases in 2019.
- Peak year: 2024, with 369 cases, more than the previous five years combined.
- Final use: 104 cases in the first three months of 2025.
- After April 2025: Condition 3 disappears completely with the new form.
In other words, Condition 3 was never applied broadly. Even in 2024, at its peak, it was imposed in just 4.6% of all criminal cases that year.
County Breakdown (2019–Mar 2025)
Where Condition 3 was applied most:
- Windham Unit — 305
- Bennington Unit — 132
- Rutland Unit — 98
- Windsor Unit — 86
- Caledonia Unit — 34
- Washington Unit — 16
- Chittenden Unit — 14
- Orange Unit — 12
- Addison Unit — 10
- Franklin Unit — 8
- Orleans Unit — 8
- Essex Unit — 4
- Grand Isle Unit — 2
- Lamoille Unit — 1
Windham, Bennington, Rutland, and Windsor together account for ~85% of all Condition 3 cases during this six-year period.
The 2024 Surge
For most of 2019–2023, Condition 3 appeared in only 20–90 cases per year. Then, in 2024, the number skyrocketed to 369 cases. Windham (110), Bennington (106), and Rutland (78) drove the surge.
By early 2025, another 104 cases carried the condition — before the April form revision eliminated it altogether.
Correlation With Crime Trends
The timing is striking. FYIVT previously reported in February 2025 that Vermont crime spiked following bail reform, with motor vehicle theft up 70.5% in 2021 and aggravated assaults, burglaries, and repeat offenses climbing thereafter.
That crime surge coincides almost perfectly with the sudden uptick in Condition 3’s use in 2024 — just before it was abolished. Judges in Windham, Bennington, and Rutland appear to have leaned harder on the no-rearrest clause precisely when repeat offending was most visible. And then the Judiciary removed it altogether.
The Bottom Line
Condition 3 — don’t get rearrested while awaiting trial — was part of Vermont’s bail paperwork for decades. From 2019 through March 2025, it was imposed in only about 2% of cases, with heavy concentration in a few southern counties. Its use spiked in 2024, then disappeared entirely in April 2025 when the new form took effect.
The result is a paradox: the simplest, most commonsense condition — don’t commit another crime while you’re awaiting trial — is no longer even listed as an option.
Why it was dropped remains unanswered. But the numbers are clear: Vermont courts leaned on Condition 3 the hardest in the very year before it was eliminated, and now the one safeguard Vermonters assumed was non-negotiable is gone.