Both go to the same place: the Washington Criminal Division of the Vermont Superior Court, 255 North Main Street, Suite 1, Barre, VT 05641, 802-479-4205. What separates the two is the top possible sentence.

• Felony. Any crime with a maximum of more than two years, or life (13 V.S.A. § 1).
• Misdemeanor. Every crime below that line.

The division's judges also approve search and arrest warrants, and they can take serious traffic or fish and game crimes. Plain traffic tickets and other civil violations skip this court and go to the Judicial Bureau. Charges against youths are handled by the Family Division, which shares the Barre building.

Montpelier is the shire town and holds the state's high court, but trials of adults happen in Barre.

• Criminal and Family Divisions, 255 North Main Street, Suite 1, Barre, VT 05641, 802-479-4205, office email WashingtonUnit@vtcourts.gov. Open weekdays 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Closed on state holidays and from 8:00 a.m. to noon on each fourth Wednesday for training.
• Civil and Probate Divisions, 65 State Street, Montpelier, VT 05602, 802-828-2091, during business hours.
• Vermont Supreme Court, 111 State Street, Montpelier, VT 05609, 802-828-4774. One justice can hear a bail appeal here.
• Treatment docket office, 255 North Main Street, Barre, VT 05641, 802-479-7528.

No. Neither city keeps a court of its own for crimes. A charge from Barre City, Montpelier or any of the county's other towns lands in the Criminal Division.

A town ordinance ticket counts as a civil violation, as do most traffic and fish and wildlife tickets. Those go to the Judicial Bureau, 55 Railroad Row, White River Junction, VT 05001, 802-652-1900. Its phone line runs Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Mailed checks or money orders go to Vermont Judicial Bureau, PO Box 607, White River Junction, VT 05001. Bureau dates appear on its own Judicial Bureau hearings list.

A person lodged after arrest is usually brought before the judge the next business day, frequently by video link from NECC. A citation lists its own court date, and the person comes then. At the hearing, the judge covers:

1. Probable cause. Unless the court finds solid grounds to believe a crime occurred and that this defendant committed it, the judge throws the case out.
2. The charges are read out.
3. The person hears their rights.
4. The public defender application is taken.
5. Bail or release conditions are set.

Pleas are guilty, no contest or not guilty, and a defendant may ask for 24 hours to choose. In some cases a person can skip the hearing and plead on paper using the court's Waiver of Arraignment form.

Prosecutors open the case with an "information," which is a sworn charging paper, plus an affidavit from police. Vermont needs no grand jury. A not guilty plea on a misdemeanor usually leads to a calendar call roughly six weeks out, where the court sorts out which cases are headed for trial. Jury selection comes after.

A misdemeanor tops out at two years. Plenty of Barre cases close another way:

• Diversion. A first or second misdemeanor may be sent to a community restorative justice provider working for the Attorney General. What it costs depends on income, with $300 as the most. About two years after completion, the record is removed (3 V.S.A. § 164). Reach the county's diversion office at 802-479-1900.
• Deferred sentence. After a guilty finding, the judge can hold off on sentencing while the person serves probation. Succeed, and the court strikes the finding; the record is then expunged as soon as restitution is paid (13 V.S.A. § 7041).

1. Charging. The State's Attorney files an information with a police affidavit.
2. Arraignment. Rights, plea and bail, the same as in a misdemeanor.
3. Pretrial work. Felonies are set one at a time, not on a group calendar. Lawyers may take depositions, which are sworn, recorded interviews with witnesses.
4. Trial. A Barre jury of 12 decides. Every juror must agree, and nothing less than proof beyond a reasonable doubt will do.
5. Sentencing. The judge may want a presentence report first. Probation, fines and prison time are all possible, alone or together.

People whose crimes grew out of drug use may qualify for the Washington Adult Drug Treatment Court Docket. Joining is a choice. Participants plead guilty to certain charges and stick with treatment; in return, the charges may be dropped or lowered. Violent cases, sexual assault and arson can't enter. The docket's number is 802-479-7528.

• Bail can be denied. Two cases qualify: a life-sentence crime with great evidence of guilt, or a violent felony where the judge is convinced, by clear and convincing evidence, that the person is a threat no conditions could stop (13 V.S.A. §§ 7553, 7553a).
• A 60-day clock. A defendant jailed without bail is owed trial within 60 days; otherwise a bail hearing follows (13 V.S.A. § 7553b).
• Quick review. A panel of three justices reviews a no-bail hold within seven business days (13 V.S.A. § 7556).
• State prosecutors may step in. The Attorney General's Criminal Division takes complex statewide cases, homicides and child abuse among them. It is at 109 State Street, Montpelier, VT 05609, 802-828-3171.
• Fewer options. A deferred sentence is barred for certain child sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault crimes.

Criminal charges here are brought by the county State's Attorney's office, 255 North Main Street, Suite 9, Barre, VT 05641, 802-479-4220. That same line reaches the office's victim advocates.

Defense for people without money comes through the Office of the Defender General. For this county it hires a contract office: the public defender at 237 North Main Street, Barre, VT 05641, 802-479-2514. The program's main office is at 6 Baldwin Street, 4th Floor, Montpelier, VT 05633-3301, 802-828-3168.

The public defender application is filled out at arraignment. Eligibility is decided by the clerk. Expect a $50 fee, which the court drops for someone who can't pay, plus a sliding share of costs for people who earn more (13 V.S.A. § 5238).

• The Vermont Judiciary Public Portal brings up some case and hearing records for the public, though only from inside the United States or Canada.
• The Court Hearings search sorts hearings by date, county and division, and takes a docket number or case name as a keyword. Sealed or restricted matters read "Confidential Case."
• The court calendars page lists scheduled sessions.

The clerk is often the quickest route. Call 802-479-4205 with the full name and birth date, and the docket number if you have one.

Judges in the Criminal Division sign arrest warrants. Officers from town police departments, the county Sheriff's Department, 10 Elm Street, Montpelier, VT 05601, 802-223-3001, and the Vermont State Police barracks at 578 Paine Turnpike North, Berlin, VT 05602, 802-229-9191, carry them out. To learn if a warrant is out, phone the clerk at 802-479-4205, try the Sheriff's Department, or have a lawyer look into it. The Public Portal gives only a partial picture. A warrant is cleared by surrendering through a lawyer, or by getting the Barre court that signed it to set another date. The clerk sits at 255 North Main Street, Suite 1, Barre, VT 05641.

Federal crimes are tried in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont. One courthouse is at 11 Elmwood Avenue, Room 200, Burlington, VT 05401, 802-951-6301. The other is at 151 West Street, Room 204, Rutland, VT 05701, 802-773-0245.

• Cases are brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont, 802-951-6725.
• In Burlington or Rutland, the first appearance brings a detention hearing. Jail or release until trial is decided then (18 U.S.C. 3142).
• Until trial, the U.S. Marshals Service, 11 Elmwood Avenue, Unit 601, Burlington, VT 05401, 802-951-6271, keeps custody of federal prisoners.
• The Federal Public Defender, 95 Pine Street, Suite 150, Burlington, VT 05401, 802-862-6990, represents people who qualify.
• Following a sentence, the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator shows the prison.

Nothing pauses in Barre because of a detainer. The detainer matters on release day instead.

1. ICE lodges Form I-247A with the facility to request a hold.
2. The request covers up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released, long enough for officers to come (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. DOC lodges some people for ICE short term. The middle stay in 2025 was six days, and DOC's immigration detainee dashboard updates every Wednesday.
4. Pickups fall under the ICE Boston Field Office, 1000 District Avenue, Burlington, MA 01803, 781-359-7500.
5. Look for the person on the ICE Online Detainee Locator.

Vermont adds its own rule in 20 V.S.A. § 2366. Each police agency has to adopt the statewide fair and impartial policing policy. Departments can restrict cooperation with immigration agents even more, though never less.

DOC decides, and it can move people. Most men from here stay at the Northeast Correctional Complex in St. Johnsbury. That complex mainly holds pretrial men from Washington, Lamoille, Orange and Caledonia counties, at minimum through close custody, and it has a separate work camp. The full list:

• Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, 7 Farrell Street, South Burlington, VT 05403, 802-863-7356. Women, both pretrial and sentenced, from all over Vermont. It is the state's sole women's site and also handles new admissions.
• Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility, 167 State Street, Rutland, VT 05701, 802-786-5830. Men awaiting trial, most of them from Bennington, Addison and Rutland counties, and a juvenile unit when needed.
• Northeast Correctional Complex, 1266-1270 US Route 5, St. Johnsbury, VT 05819, 802-748-8151.
• Northern State Correctional Facility, 2559 Glen Road, Newport, VT 05855, 802-334-3364. Vermont's largest site at 433 beds: Orleans and Essex pretrial men, sentenced men, programs for violence, and an infirmary bigger than most.
• Northwest State Correctional Facility, 3649 Lower Newton Road, St. Albans, VT 05478, 802-524-6771. Men from Grand Isle, Chittenden and Franklin, people held for federal courts, and the main sex offender treatment program.
• Southern State Correctional Facility, 700 Charlestown Road, Springfield, VT 05156, 802-909-2601. Windham and Windsor men, plus those with acute mental health, medical or age-related needs. Hospice care, an Honors Unit and Vermont's biggest infirmary are all here.
• Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, 19351 US Highway 49 North, Tutwiler, MS 38963. A CoreCivic prison in Mississippi that takes some sentenced Vermont men under contract. People still awaiting trial are never sent there. Ask DOC Central Office, 802-241-2442.

Sentences in Vermont commit people to the Commissioner of Corrections, who then chooses a facility (28 V.S.A. § 701). No sentence names a particular building. A sentenced person may stay where they waited for trial or be moved, sometimes out of state.

• Track them on the Offender Locator, which carries sentenced people too.
• Our Vermont state prisons page describes every site in turn.
• DOC's probation and parole office in Barre supervises people after release: 255 North Main Street, Suite 6, Barre, VT 05641, 802-479-4242.

The Family Division, at the same Barre courthouse and phone, 802-479-4205, hears delinquency cases. Its reach starts at age 12. It now takes most 18-year-olds as well, except for the most serious crimes, and 19-year-olds are due to join on July 1, 2027.

• When the accused is 14, 15 or 16 and the crime is on a set statutory list, the youth must be seen and released inside 24 hours of the arrest (13 V.S.A. § 7554).
• Locked custody for youths is rare. Since October 2024, the state's one secure youth unit has been Red Clover Treatment Center, which holds four.
• Juvenile probation officers work for DCF's Family Services Division, 280 State Drive, Waterbury, VT 05671-1030.
• Juveniles pay nothing for a public defender.

Victim advocates work inside the State's Attorney's office, 255 North Main Street, Suite 9, Barre, VT 05641, 802-479-4220. On bail, the prosecutor has a legal duty to pass along the victim's view to the judge (13 V.S.A. § 5308).

• Victims can ask to hear in advance when the accused will be released, including on bail (13 V.S.A. § 5305).
• Victims may attend hearings and speak at sentencing (13 V.S.A. § 5321).
• The Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services runs victim compensation from 58 South Main Street, Suite 3, Waterbury, VT 05676, 802-241-1250.
• DOC's Victim Services Unit, 280 State Drive, NOB 2 South, Waterbury, VT 05671-2000, 888-810-1847, answers questions about notices. Free custody and release alerts also come through VINELink, 866-976-8267.