Use the Pretrial Policy Laws Homepage to find the laws in your state or view 50-state comparison charts to see trends across the nation. You can also find recent enactments from 2012 through 2017, and track pending pretrial legislation.
State law is one piece of the puzzle that makes up the legal framework for pretrial release policy, which governs the eligibility and conditions of release of people after arrest.
Since 2012, every state legislature has addressed pretrial policy, resulting in close to 700 new enactments. Read two reports covering enactments from this time period that have individualized the pretrial process by focusing on specific defendants or offense categories.
View and subscribe to NCSL's civil and criminal justice newsletters.
NCSL Pretrial Release partners with the Laura and John Arnold Foundation on pretrial release policies, and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Safety and Justice Challenge.
View a variety of resources related to pretrial policy, including release eligibility, conditions of release, bail, commercial bail bonding and pretrial diversion.
