On a daily basis, inside Vermont’s six prisons, Vermont Department of Corrections staff run virtual courthouses.
The existing system, Nick Deml, Vermont’s corrections commissioner, told a joint hearing of House Corrections and House Judiciary, is a “major breach in the separation of powers.”
Deml did not mince words, calling out the state judiciary, which administers the state court system, in fiery testimony Thursday morning.
The three-hour joint hearing, which convened leadership of the judiciary, corrections, state’s attorneys and sheriffs, hashed out and nodded to many of the issues with remote court VTDigger first reported last month. (I thrive on the shoutouts.)
Since the onset of Covid-19, incarcerated defendants frequently appear in court remotely using telecommunication software from prison. Often, Deml told lawmakers, these people rely on prison caseworkers to explain what’s happening with their cases, as many defendants don’t have regular contact with their defense counsel. That burden means caseworkers aren’t doing their regular duties of preparing people for release.
“That is not the way the justice system is supposed to work,” Deml said. He argued remote proceedings add to Vermont’s backlog of court cases because the virtual hearings lack the efficiencies of being in the courtroom. What takes one court date in-person, he suggested, can take two sessions remotely.
One solution, according to the commissioner, would be to bring court staff into the prison to handle remote proceedings. Another option, Deml suggested, is to fund more transportation deputies, who could bring more people to court from prison, decreasing the reliance on remote hearings.
That’s where the sheriffs come in.
Twenty-four state-funded sheriff’s deputies currently handle the bulk of transport responsibilities, according to Annie Noonan, labor relations and operations director for the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs.
The department wants six additional deputies, she told lawmakers. But the governor’s budget is recommending the department leave six existing positions unfilled to save more than $600,000 on personnel vacancies.
“More and more,” Noonan said, a lack of transport deputies is forcing courts to postpone hearings, delaying case resolutions.
That piqued the attention of House Judiciary Committee chair Rep. Martin Lalonde, D-South Burlington.
“Are we going to see even more (postponements) if you’re down to 18 transports?” he asked.
Noonan nodded.
“And presumably we won’t have that problem if we get the additional six,” LaLonde replied, an appropriation request seemingly materializing in his mind.
— Ethan Weinstein
In the know
The University of Vermont has achieved R1 institution status, a designation given by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education for institutions with “very high research spending and doctorate production,” university officials announced on Thursday.
The designation comes as President Donald Trump administration’s attempts to pause federal research funding through the National Institutes of Health and other grant-making agencies have cast scientific institutions into limbo and uncertainty about the future. The Larner College of Medicine garnered more than $100 million in research grants in 2024 — $50 million of that comes from the National Institutes of Health, according to Richard Page, the dean of the university’s Larner College of Medicine.
UVM administrators were undeterred by the uncertainty surrounding research funding. Federal court injunctions on the president’s attempt to stop funding have allowed things to continue as normal for the university, said Kirk Dombrowski, the vice president of research and economic development at the university.
“We don’t actually have any formal bank cancellations yet. We’re at full speed,” he said. “A lot of it is performative rhetoric. We haven’t seen the concrete pieces, and when we do, we’ll adjust.”
Read more about the new designation for UVM here.
On the move
Gov. Phil Scott signed the first bill of this new legislative biennium into law Thursday: H. 78 will allow municipalities to elect “any or all” officials by Australian ballot, cleaning things up for at least one municipality before Town Meeting Day next month.
— Kristen Fountain
Visit our 2025 bill tracker for the latest updates on major legislation we are following.
Gov jokes
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont took to the social media platform X this morning to troll New York Gov. Kathy Hochul with a riff on President Donald Trump’s executive order attempting to rename for us what the rest of the world is still calling the Gulf of Mexico. Gov. Phil Scott quickly got in on the fun.
Lamont posted a simple map showing how with the stroke of a red pen a certain water body between his state and Long Island could from henceforth be known as the Connecticut Sound. Scott quickly responded with his own image claiming the river that flows into the contested water body for the state of Vermont. Kudos to @GovPhilScott.
— Kristen Fountain
Read the story on VTDigger here: Final Reading: Remote court hearings are a ‘major breach in the separation of powers,’ Corrections commissioner tells lawmakers.