1. Garry Herceg Consultant Pretrial Justice Institute
The Smart Pretrial Demonstration Initiative: Using A Smart Approach To Implement A Smart Change
Garry Herceg
Consultant
Pretrial Justice Institute

2. Our Pretrial Challenge
U.S. jail admissions doubled since ’83
Largest growth is in pretrial population
People staying longer
Wrong people in, wrong people out
Poor performance and outcomes
of the current 11 million arrests, 75% are misdemeanors and the felonies are mostly non-violent property or drug offenses
Length of stay has increased from 14 to 23 days
Poor, low risk people are being detained on bond amounts they cannot meet & Dangerous are using escape hatch
When they are released, if they have stayed at least 8 days in your jail, their likelihood of committing new crime goes up 50% as long as 2 years later.

3. Old model – charge based and money based policies that produce poor outcomes and cause us anxiety
New model – risk assessment, triaging of the right people into the right place for the right amount of time so we can produce better outcomes and a higher return on investment of resources

4. Since 2010… NACo American County Platform Private funders
DOJ National Symposium on Pretrial Justice
Legislation
Colorado/Prop 102
California/AB 109
Justice Reinvestment (KY, DE)

5. Essence of Smart Pretrial
Test cost savings and public safety enhancements through
Pretrial risk assessment
Risk management strategies
Measuring pretrial outcomes of (1) court appearance and (2) public safety

6. What makes it “smart”?
Use of empirical analysis/independent research and evidence-based practices
Improve performance and effectiveness while containing costs
BJA’s Smart Suite – Policing, Probation, Prosecution, Defense, and Pretrial

7. Smart Pretrial Goals Maximize public safety Maximize court appearance
Maximize appropriate use of
Release
Release conditions
Detention
Public resources

8. Smart Pretrial Values
Safety
Fairness
Effectiveness

9. 7 Key Elements Early release by law enforcement of eligible defendants
Assess every booked defendant for risk using empirically-derived risk assessment tool
Early review of charges by seasoned prosecutor

10. Presence of defense counsel at initial bail hearing
Release or detention of defendants informed by outcome of risk assessment and adversarial hearing
Use of empirically-supported risk mitigation (e.g., court date reminders and risk-based supervision)
Information sharing from pretrial to sentenced phases

11. Inaugural Smart Pretrial Sites
Delaware
City/County of Denver
Yakima County, WA

12. 1 Phase 1 - Planning Started October 1, 2014
Sites have a policy team and local site coordinator
System assessment/vision
Baseline data collection and
Cost-benefit analysis
System mapping
Legal analysis
Racial and ethnic disparities assessment
Communications plan
Implementation plan for Phase 2

13. Phase 2 - Implementation
Implementation of action plan
Make the planned changes to policy and practice
Continued education, training, meetings
Ongoing data collection
Sites will advance to Phase 2 based on the quality of the work plan and the progress made during Phase 1 to codify agreements that allow for implementation. Sites must have BJA approval to move to Phase 2. Again, this is not time dependant and there is no automatic advancement based on time elapsed.
Phase two will be the implementation phase, and the support structures put in place during Phase 1 will continue through Phase 2. Technical assistance will be provided to aid with successful implementation. Sites will be required to participate in ongoing educational opportunities, such as webinars, as well as a second cross-site meeting. Local policy teams will continue to meet regularly to review progress.
Sites will continue to collect data and prepare quarterly reports to the researcher, and for use in the policy team meetings. In addition to the independent researcher, BJA is supporting an initiative communications strategy that will include documenting the process and progress of the initiative in a variety of ways, such as on-camera interviews with stakeholders. Sites will be required to participate in these documentation activities.

14. Phase 3 – Sustainability
Continued implementation and data analysis
Planning for post-initiative sustainment of change
Development as learning sites
Publications and possibly a Smart Pretrial Summit open to other interested parties
BJA currently hopes to be able to fund sites for the third phase of this initiative. The technical assistance and training support is currently funded for all three years. Advancement to Phase three will require the submission of proposal for funding, and award will be determined on the successful implementation of activities in Phase 2. During Phase 3, BJA expects to support up to 2 of the sites to serve as learning sites, and will aid in the development of materials that would support the hosting of delegations from other jurisdictions.

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