House Concurred in Senate Amendments to H.645 to Expand Restorative Justice Programs

The House voted to concur in Senate amendments to H.645, legislation that would expand and restructure restorative justice practices across the state by codifying a statewide pre-charge diversion program and authorizing additional study, reporting and work groups.

Member from Essex Junction, reporting for the House Judiciary Committee, said H.645 would codify a statewide pre-charge diversion program within the Attorney General’s Office for juveniles and adults, create a work group to review post-adjudication restorative justice through the Department of Corrections, and initiate a study to determine next steps for community-based restorative referrals. "The goal of H.645 is to expand and restructure restorative justice practices in Vermont," the committee reporter said.

The committee summarized Senate amendments in several areas: it added a definition of "community referral" that excludes referrals involving offenses for which probable cause exists; clarified that pre-charge and community referrals are distinct; expanded juvenile pre-charge referral language to allow referral for offenses deemed appropriate by a state's attorney's pre-charge policy; removed a requirement that a state attorney policy exist before counties may initiate referrals; modified deletion-of-records notice language (striking 'certified' for just 'notice'); clarified that state's attorneys retain access to deleted precharge records as in current practice; moved the Attorney General's reporting date from 2027 to 2025 at the Attorney General's request; and converted a mandate for precharge grants into a permissive "may" provision for the Attorney General's Office.

The amendment package also requested the Vermont Sentencing Commission provide a report on precharge diversion record retention practices and removed two positions that had been in the House version. The Judiciary Committee reported concurrence on a straw poll and asked the House for support; the House then voice-voted and the presiding officer announced concurrence in the Senate proposal of amendment.

Next steps: with concurrence recorded, the amended H.645 will proceed through the Legislature’s remaining steps; committees will monitor implementation details and the timing of reports identified in the amendments.