Pretrial

Within the child welfare world, research has demonstrated

the following truths:

Removing a child from their home, even when necessary, is generally traumatic for the child;
Kinship and community placements help reduce the degree of trauma felt by the child;
Reunification must remain the primary focus unless and until every effort has been made and it has been deemed impossible.

Mr. Hood made a Prosecutor-Led Diversion presentation at this training in Arkansas.

The Las Vegas, Nevada Municipal Court is requesting atechnical assistance in the form of consultation and data analysis. The engagement was transferred to a new contract.

Have a call with AmyJ. and AEquitas to talk about ways to mitigate the issue they had from impacting prosecutions as a whole.

The Judiciary of Guam, Department of Corrections requested travel supported for Judge Barcinas to attend the Pretrial Justice Institutes Conference. ​BJA NTTAC provided travel support for one representative from the Judiciary of Guam to attend the conference from March 14-15, 2019 in Denver, CO. ​

Kim Ball presented with Geoff Burkhart, Executive Director of the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, and Ashley Pennington, Public Defender for Charleston and Berkeley Counties, on a panel entitled, The Importance and Benefits of Counsel at First Appearance. They highlighted how jurisdictions can ensure effective representation at pretrial, the benefits communities have seen, and lessons learned along the way, as well as discuss how to approach, educate, and engage local elected officials and other important partners.

Become more mindful of the need to implement and sustain tribal sovereignty, unique to your nation, into all aspects of your tribal justice system. During the webinar series, you will learn more about tribal sovereignty, how it might be exercised or how it is exercised in your own community, and what to consider as you begin your tribal justice system planning process. You will also learn a process to take steps to identify opportunities for the inclusion of customs, traditions, and values into your tribal justice systems.

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.

Working with the Connecticut Sentencing Commission to examine and potentially modify their existing pretrial risk tool so that it is effective in a no-money bail/limited preventive detention system, and is equitable across racial and ethnic groups.

Develop a guide plan to conduct a validation of the VPRAI tool currently in use by Buncombe County Pretrial Services. This will also provide an option to simultaneously validate the Public Safety Assessment (PSA) tool. An alternative option to develop a Buncombe-specific tool is also described for consideration. Choices made based on this guide plan will direct future use of pretrial assessment in the county.