Pretrial Quarterly Newsletter

July 2017

The Pretrial Quarterly is an NCSL electronic newsletter for state legislators, legislative staff, and others interested in pretrial release policy. This newsletter provides quarterly updates on state pretrial action and legislation and new NCSL resources. It also links to latest research and highlights pretrial policy in the news.

From the States

• Pretrial policy is a hot topic at NCSL’s Legislative Summit! Stop by Locked Up: Reforming Bail and the Front End of Justice or First Stop: Jail or Treatment? on Tuesday, Aug. 8.
• The Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission has a new report with recommendations on bail and pretrial services.
• North Carolina Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice: Criminal Investigation & Adjudication Committee Report
• A new blog from NCSL: Responding to the Growth of Local Jails.
• So far in 2017, NCSL has tracked six enactments addressing the use of risk assessments: IL SB 2034, IN HB 1137, MT SB 59, ND SB 2015, TX SB 1326, VT SB 134, and WA HB 1163. Other notable enactments to look at? Check out: CT HB 7044 and NE L 259.

The Cache

• Vera Institute of Justice and the Safety and Justice Challenge: Out of Sight – The Growth of Jails in Rural America.
• Color of Change & ACLU’s Campaign for Smart Justice: Selling Off Our Freedom – How Insurance Corporations Have Taken Over Our Bail System.
• Safety and Justice Challenge: Keynote Address by John Wetzel, Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
• National Center for State Courts: Trends in State Courts – Fines, Fees, and Bail Practices: Challenges and Opportunities.
• Council of State Governments Justice Center: Report to Albany on the LEAD Program – One-Year Anniversary.
• Pretrial Justice Institute: Pretrial Risk Assessment Can Produce Race-Neutral Results.

In the News

• Illinois Representative Elgie Sims says that Senate Bill 2034 “is going to make Illinois a national leader in bail reform.”
• U.S. Senators Kamala Harris (Calif.) and Rand Paul (Ky.) come together to write an op-ed for the New York Times about introducing the Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act, a new federal bill that they say would encourage states to reform or replace current bail systems. They discuss their bipartisan criminal justice reform efforts in a new interview.
• A federal judge in Houston issued a 193-page ruling finding the Harris County bail system to be fundamentally unfair because it allows for the detention of indigent individuals arrested for low-level offenses simply because they cannot afford to pay bail.
• Marc Levin, of Right on Crime, makes a conservative case for bail reform, calling America’s pretrial population a “blot on our national conscience, one that conservatives must focus their energies on erasing.”
• San Francisco Mayor Edwin pens his thoughts about pretrial justice and announces support for state legislation.
• Jay-Z weighs in on pretrial justice and supports philanthropic organizations posting bail for fathers this Father’s Day.
• Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey A. Kremers writes that “Enhancing public safety requires us to manage release and detention based on risk.” Learn more about the changes in Milwaukee from Judge Kremers here.
• New statistics released by New Jersey show that the jail population has declined by 19 percent since pretrial justice legislation went into effect on Jan. 1, 2017.
• Bill Keller from The Marshall Project identifies nine lessons about criminal justice reform that Washington can learn from the states. One of those is that reducing incarceration can be effectively achieved by not locking people up in the first place. Keller points to front-end measures put in place by states as examples.

This newsletter is prepared under a partnership project of NCSL’s Criminal Justice Program and the Public Welfare Foundation. Links to external websites and reports are for information purposes only and do not indicate NCSL’s endorsement of the content.