Pretrial

The Partners will refine the curriculum for the proposed TPA based on BJA guidance and will solicit feedback from past TPA participants. The Partners will announce the academy dates electronically to probation, police, courts, and tribal leaders. A BJA approved participation application will be sent and reviewed with weight given to applicants who have one to three years of relevant experience; who have not previously attended the academy; who are from diverse tribes; who work within existing probation departments; and who are seeking to implement evidence based practices.

CJI will assist DOC implement the pretrial reforms included in SB91. Alaska hasn't had a pretrial division before, so implementation will include the creation of a division and hiring of staff.

Pretrial Enforcement Division six month report that includes data from January 2018 - June 2018 (the first 6 months of implementation).

NACDL staff will travel to Riverside County (CA) to provide technical and training assistance for prosecutors, judges, defenders, and probation. Riverside County's probation department has offered to conduct a training for all four groups with the goal of educating them on the county's bail practices and risk-assessment use.

In preparation for a presentation Pretrial Enforcement Division Director Fox will give to the legislature in February, CJI prepared a PowerPoint outlining the purpose of the legislation, the steps the Pretrial Enforcement Division has taken so far, and the impact other states passing similar reforms have seen.

To accompany efforts to educate judges and legislators, CJI created a document summarizing recent and historical lawsuits against jurisdictions that were deemed to have a pretrial system that violated defendants’ rights.

To support DOC in its continuing efforts to educate stakeholders and the general public on the new pretrial system, CJI prepared a one pager on pretrial changes, and another on why out-of-state criminal history isn’t included on the current tool.

Provided advice and guidance to Thurston County, WA on planning for selection or creation of a pretrial risk assessment instrument, and preparing to validate the selected tool. We set an outline for a multi-phase TA engagement with them, and defined a scope of work for the first phase, guiding selection of an existing tool or planning for local development of a new tool.

Working to establish a risk assessment for domestic violence cases and a protocol to supervise defendants in the community in accordance with their risk level

On February 21, 2018, the NCJA began it's 4th biennial study of Byrne JAG investments at the state and local level, with a focus on expenditures in calendar year 2016. In the first half of the data collection, a survey was distributed to SAAs asking them to quantify Byrne JAG spending by Purpose Area and "Project Type" (similar to the 14-subcategories found in the Byrne JAG PMT). In the second half of the study, the NCJA Program Analyst then conducted one-hour phone interviews with each SAA to discuss promising programs funded in their states using Byrne JAG.

NACDL, working in consultation with Professor Michele LaVigne of the University of Wisconsin Law School, has drafted a pretrial release manual, tailored to the specific legal framework and Wisconsin’s defense bar’s needs and challenges. The manual includes a discussion of fundamental bail issues and case law, practice guidelines and checklists for effective bail advocacy, a catalog of Wisconsin's laws and procedures, sample pleadings, applicable risk-assessment tools, and cites to available resources within the jurisdiction.