Budgetary advantages of enhancing pretrial justice fin
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Budgetary advantages of enhancing pretrial justice fin
- 1. BUDGETARY ADVANTAGES OF PRETRIAL SERVICE PROGRAMS Pretrial Services: A Primer for Budget Planners
- 2. Overview and Agenda National Data Role of Pretrial Law Enforcement Exercise Legal Overview Review Services Perspective
- 4. Overview and Agenda National Data Role of Pretrial Law Enforcement Exercise Legal Overview Review Services Perspective
- 5. Pretrial Stage of the Criminal Justice System The period of time between arrest/citation and case adjudication is known as the pretrial stage. During this stage defendants enjoy certain inalienable rights as found in law. Legal rights that apply during the pretrial stage can be found in the Constitution of the United States, case law, and state and federal statutes.
- 6. Legal and Constitutional Rights 1. Presumption of Innocence 2. Right to Counsel 3. Right Against Self- incrimination 4. Right to Due Process of Law 5. Right to Equal Protection Under the Law 6. Right to Bail that is Not Excessive
- 7. Presumption of Release Unless a judicial official determines otherwise, it is presumed that the defendant will be released under one of the following conditions: Written Promise to Appear Unsecured Appearance Bond Custody of a Designated Person Secure Bond House Arrest with Electronic Monitoring N.C.G.S 15A-534(b)
- 8. Overview and Agenda National Data Role of Pretrial Law Enforcement Exercise Legal Overview Review Services Perspective
- 9. Growth in County Jail Populations Jail Population: 1982-2007 900000 800000 700000 600000 500000 400000 300000 200000 100000 0 1982 1987 1992 1997 2002 2007 Bureau of Justice Statistics: Annual Survey of Jails
- 10. Violent Crime Rate Violent Crime Rate 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 1995 1997 1998 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2010 FBI Uniform Crime Reports
- 11. Property Crime Rate Property Crime Rate 5000 4500 4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 1995 1997 1998 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2010 FBI Uniform Crime Reports
- 12. Growth in County Expenditures for Jails County Jail Expenditures: 1982-2007 30000000 25000000 20000000 15000000 10000000 5000000 0 1982 1987 1992 1997 2002 2007 Bureau of Justice Statistics: Justice Expenditures and Employment in the United States
- 13. Jail Populations In Era of Economic Downturn Jail Population: 2005-2011 790000 780000 770000 760000 750000 740000 730000 720000 710000 700000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Bureau of Justice Statistics: Annual Survey of Jails
- 14. Changing Characteristics of Jail Populations 600,000 500,000 400,000 300,000 200,000 Pretrial Detainee Population on June 30 100,000 0 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2009 2010 Bureau of Justice Statistics: Annual Survey of Jails
- 15. Overview and Agenda National Data Role of Pretrial Law Enforcement Exercise Legal Overview Review Services Perspective
- 16. PRETRIAL SERVICES FUNCTIONS The National Association of Counties and the American Bar Association say that all counties should provide for several functions to facilitate pretrial justice, including: Gathering information on all defendants who are in custody awaiting a bail setting hearing, including conducting a risk assessment. Supervising defendants on pretrial release and reminding them of their upcoming court dates.
- 17. Gathering Information What is involved: Interviewing defendants for information about their residence and employment status, verifying the information provided, doing criminal history record checks, and conducting an individual assessment of risk each defendant poses in terms of: Riskof flight Danger to the community
- 18. Benefits Economic benefits: Judicial officers have the information they need to make informed decisions regarding pretrial release, meaning they are much more likely to order release, thus reducing jail costs. Mecklenburg County, NC saw a 32% increase in non-financial bonds after the implementation of a revised bail policy and evidence based risk assessment with NO statistically significant increase in failure rates.
- 19. Supervision What is involved: Actively monitoring conditions of pretrial release imposed by the court. Conditions can include: reporting in on a regular basis, either by phone or in person, drug or alcohol testing, and electronic monitoring.
- 20. Number of Defendants Admitted to Pretrial in North Carolina 18,000 15,890 15,521 16,000 14,746 14,000 12,000 10,000 7,776 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 FY 07 FY 08 FY 09 FY 10 North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission: Compendium of Community Corrections Programs in North Carolina
- 21. Success Rates in North Carolina 86% 85% 85% 84% 83% 82% 81% 80% 80% 79% 79% 79% 78% 77% 76% FY 07 FY 08 FY 09 FY 10 North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission: Compendium of Community Corrections Programs in North Carolina
- 22. Mecklenburg County Comparison of Pretrial and Secured Bond Success Rates FY 10 82 85 80 75 70 70 Pretrial 65 Secure Bond 60 FY 10 Pretrial Secure Bond Mecklenburg County: Bail Policy Review
- 23. Benefits Economic benefits: Defendants can be safely monitored in the community at a fraction of the cost of keeping them in jail. Savings can be used to fund other areas.
- 24. North Carolina Pretrial Cost Per Day/Per Participant $70.00 $60.00 $50.00 $40.00 $30.00 $20.00 $10.00 $0.00 FY 07 FY 08 FY 09 FY10 FY 11 Program Cost/Day Jail Cost/Day Adjusted Jail Cost/Day North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission: Compendium of Community Corrections Programs in North Carolina
- 25. Name That Savings In FY 11, what was the cost benefit of Pretrial Services in North Carolina? $1,359,209
- 26. Overview and Agenda Law Legal National Data Role of Pretrial Exercise Enforcement Overview Review Services Perspective
- 28. Conclusion/Next Steps Government officials should look upon the use of jail beds the same as the health industry looks at the use of hospital beds – given the huge expense, as a last resort, only when all other less expensive options will not suffice. Consider utilizing other release means where appropriate.
- 29. Contact Information Chief Kenneth Miller, Greensboro Police Department Ken.Miller@greensboro-nc.gov Raina Holliday, Pretrial Services Director, Rockingham County rholliday@co.rockingham.nc.us Jessica Ireland, Program Manager, Mecklenburg County Pretrial Services. Jessica.Ireland@MecklenburgCountyNC.gov
Editor's Notes
- Ice breakers. Ask how many people in the room work in jurisdictions that have Pretrial programs. Get a feel for why people are there, what do they hope to learn.
- Walk participants thru a real life case and have a brief discussion regarding if they would release or detain, and reasons behind decision. Make the point that hopefully this presentation will highlight “win win” strategies where Counties utilize the concept of smart detention safe release to promote public safety and save money.
- Let’s begin by looking at some data showing what has been going on in this country regarding jail populations and jail costs. As this chart shows, there was a steady growth in jail populations nationwide in the 25-year period between 1982 and 2007, going from around 200,000 to nearly 800,000.
- During much of the period when jail populations were rising, crime rates were going down. This chart shows that the rate of violent crime has gone down from nearly 700 per 100,000 population in 1995 to 400 per 100,000 in 2010.
- Likewise, the property crime rate has gone down as well.
- This chart shows how county jail costs rose over that same 25-year period, tripling from 1982 to 2007, making the construction and operation of jails one of the most expensive items in county government budgets.
- It was in 2008 that the current economic downturn began. This chart shows that the jail population reached its peak in 2008 and has been steadily declining since– possible indications that counties are realizing that they can no longer economically sustain such high jail populations.
- Up until about 1996, the pretrial and sentenced populations in the jail were about even. Since then, the pretrial population has grown at a much greater pace, and now make up about 60 percent of jail populations. Thus, the pretrial population is a big target when thinking about how to reduce the overall jail population which in turn will result in cost savings for counties.
- BothNaco and the ABA are supporters of Pretrial Services and advocate for their use in all counties.
- An information gathering process is used in many areas, including health care, to triage cases to identify those that can be dealt with in the least restrictive and least expensive way, When it comes to gathering information on persons who have been arrested, unfortunately, the model in place in many jurisdictions is to treat every case in the most restrictive and most expensive way (i.e., put them in a jail bed) and then determine later if it might be possible to treat them differently.
- As you can see, using a evidenced based risk assessment that takes into account risk of flight and danger to the community can substantially free up jail space with no impact to the community. It’s important to state that NO tool is perfect and it is unreasonable to expect that failures will not happen, they will. Now let’s actually take a look at the risk assessment used by Mecklenburg and Rockingham.
- Success rate is defined as the rate at which defendants reach final resolution of his/her case and do not have their pretrial status revoked due to committing a new offense while on pretrial release, a violation of conditions of release, or a failure to appear in court. As shown above, the statewide average has ranged from 79% in FY 08 to 85% in FY 10.
- The important point to make here is that money does not make a defendant a safe release. There is NO evidence that posting a secure bond deters you from committing future criminal activity. I think the data in Mecklenburg County helps to further this point.
- Simply put, the goal should be “smart detention safe release.” Limited and costly jail space should be used for defendants that present a great risk of flight or danger to the community.
- To more accurately reflect the true jail costs, an adjusted jail cost was estimated using the jailer reported cost multiplied by one third. This estimate is used to account for fixed costs such as food, medical expenses, utilities, or other jail operating costs that will not change unless a section of the jail can be closed that results in staff or other overhead reductions. If using the adjusted jail cost as the comparison measure, release on pretrial is nearly three times less expensive than jail detention. Pretrial Services is clearly a more efficient use of tax dollars.
- Although savings vary from county to county, Statewide there was over 1.3 million dollars saved in FY 11. Keep in mind this is based on only 30 Pretrial agencies.