Accountability court docket to continue in ‘modified fashion’

This story by Chris Mays was first published in the Brattleboro Reformer on Oct. 25, 2026.

BRATTLEBORO — Windham Superior Court Criminal Division’s Rapid Accountability Docket is ramping down to one day a week. 

“I think overall it’s been very successful,” Windham County State’s Attorney Steven Brown said in an interview last week. “It connected some people with services and community resources that may not have been connected.” 

An announcement in July described the docket as “a concentrated, 90-day county surge of dedicated judicial time and space.”

“The strategic goal is swift intervention: dramatically reducing the time between an alleged offense and a defendant’s first appearance before a judge,” the announcement said. “By accelerating this timeline, the justice system can deliver immediate accountability, case resolution, and rehabilitative services close to the event, meaningfully interrupting the cycle of repeat offenses.”

Court records show that the docket resulted in 223 closed cases, with 297 cases still participating in the program moving forward. A total of 105 defendants, with 45 of those being resolved, participated. 

Defendants were able to resolve their cases on “much more favorable terms,” Brown said. He called Health Care & Rehabilitation Services “a terrific partner.”

“They’ve been present at the vast majority of hearings,” he said. “They’ve been a great resource for folks.” 

The Rapid Accountability Docket will continue in “a modified fashion,” Brown said. The plan is to have one morning a week dedicated to the docket. Brown anticipates Judge John Treadwell will continue handling the cases. 

Town Manager John Potter said the town “really benefited from the accountability court by building on the work of the Situation Table and One Brattleboro and finding additional innovative, proactive ways to better connect people in the criminal justice system with services.”

The two efforts he mentioned are ways the town has collaborated with other agencies to help individuals struggling in the community. 

“I’m extremely grateful to service providers, town staff, the judiciary, and the Governor’s Office for supporting these efforts to continuously improve Brattleboro’s public safety effectiveness,” Potter said. 

Brown said the state’s attorney’s office and public defender’s office weren’t designed to have a third court running. Before, the courthouse was set up to handle criminal and family matters. 

“We have to shift resources and take some measures to limit the impact,” Brown said. “But from my standpoint, it is worth the investment.”

Defense attorneys had “a huge increase in their court time because of this process,” Brown said. 

“That needs to be recognized,” he said. 

Brown said Elisabeth Fainberg, deputy state’s attorney, devoted “100 percent of their energy to the docket.”  

“They attend every hearing,” Brown said. “They provided the office with daily updates on what was happening.” 

Brown said Leah James, victim’s advocate from his office, was “able to shoulder a majority of the work generated by the docket.” 

Brown said the court recognized the importance of the docket and agreed to keep it running in conjunction with the governor’s office. 

“We have weekly calls with the governor’s office,” Brown said. “They’ve been terrific partners as well.”

Mimi Brill, supervising attorney of the Windham County public defender’s office, said the program “spread us incredibly thin so we weren’t able to work on other cases, so that was difficult.”

“We had a mandate,” she said. “It was funded, but we don’t have the services here. At least in Brattleboro and locally, we don’t have as rigorous treatment modalities available as in places like Burlington.”

Brill said the program helped with the backlog of cases but not homelessness. 

“I think some people did well with that kind of structure,” she said. “All in all, I think what we need in Vermont is to have real substance use disorder treatment and real mental health treatment like programmed inpatient that are 90 days that can really work. We don’t have that.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Accountability court docket to continue in ‘modified fashion’.