By The Vanguard Staff
SACRAMENTO, CA – The Judicial Council of California Friday released its final legislative report on a budgeted $75 million study to evaluate two-year pretrial projects in local courts and found—despite the distraction of the Covid pandemic—relaxing pretrial release requirements by making it easier to qualify for own recognizance or no bail release resulted overall in fewer failures to appear (FTA) in 16 counties.
A Pretrial Detention Reform Workgroup (established by former Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye in 2016) concluded in 2017 “California’s current bail system unnecessarily compromises victim and public safety because it bases a person’s liberty on financial resources rather than likelihood of future criminal behavior and exacerbates socioeconomic disparities and racial bias.”
The council noted the “bail industry plays a major role in pretrial release with commercial bail bonds being the primary method of posting bail in California. Arrested individuals who use commercial bail bonds (often the only choice for lower-income individuals) are charged a bail premium—typically 10 percent of the value of the bond.
“The bail premium is nonrefundable, even if the arrested individual’s charges are never filed in court, the charges are dismissed, or the individual shows up at all required court hearings, negatively affecting those with limited or no financial resources. Individuals who do not have the financial resources to post bail are subject to pretrial detention.”
The council added, “Research indicates that pretrial detention can lead to effects on case outcome and sentence. One study showed that pretrial detention led to a 13 percent increase in the likelihood of being convicted, an effect largely explained by an increase in guilty pleas among defendants who otherwise would have been acquitted or had their charges dropped…pretrial detention leads to a 42 percent increase in the length of the incarceration sentence and a 41 percent increase in the amount of non-bail court fees owed.”
“To make justice more equitable for all,” the council report maintained, Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated $75 million to the Judicial Council to programs related to pretrial decision-making in at least 10 trial courts.
The projects, according to the council, were designed to “increase the safe and efficient release of arrestees before trial, use the least restrictive monitoring practices possible while protecting public safety and ensuring court appearances, validate and expand the use of risk assessment tools, and assess any bias.”
The council report said 422,151 individuals were assessed during the pilot program, and, “Data suggests an overall positive impact of the program, noting after implementation there was a 5.7 percent increase in pretrial release for misdemeanors; 8.8 percent increase in pretrial release for felonies; 5.8 percent decrease in rearrest/rebooking for misdemeanors; 2.4 percent decrease in rearrest/rebooking for felonies; 6.8 percent decrease in failure to appear for misdemeanors; and 2.5 percent increase in failure to appear for felonies.”
The final legislative report on the pilot program documents the implementation and outcomes of the program, including “public safety as measured by arrests for new crimes during the pretrial period, rates of failure to appear at a court hearing as required, validity of the tools as measured by the accuracy of the risk assessment tools in predicting failures to appear in court and new arrests, and whether the accuracy of the tool’s predictions varies by race or ethnicity, gender, or other factors.”
The report noted the $68 million spent on the pilot program will be reduced to about $30 million per a 2021 legislative measure.
The council report concluded, the pilot projects “accomplished what they initially set out to achieve,” working with local courts to “establish or expand their pretrial operations,” and implementing “risk assessment tools, invested in technological enhancements, increased pretrial services, implemented or expanded court date reminder systems, and provided supportive services for their pretrial population.”
The council reported noted, “Despite the pandemic, analyses of the data collected under the program indicate promising outcomes regarding overall pretrial release, rearrest/rebooking, and failure to appear. Since the start of the program, 422,151 individuals were assessed for pretrial release.”
The report said there was a “significant increase (8.8 percent) in pretrial release for felonies. There was also a significant increase (5.7 percent) in pretrial release for misdemeanors…a significant decrease (2.4 percent) in felony rearrest or rebooking and a significant decrease (5.8 percent) in misdemeanor rearrest or rebooking.
“There was a significant increase (2.5 percent) in failure to appear for felonies (but) a significant decrease (6.8 percent) for misdemeanors,” suggesting “Failure to appear rates can be greatly improved by shortening case disposition time and implementing a court date reminder system.”
In fact, the court date reminder system turned out, according to the Judicial Council report, to be a big winner, noting, by the conclusion of the pilot program, “14 of 16 pilot projects had implemented a court date reminder system and “this has yielded promising results.”
The report stated, “Court date reminder systems are a least restrictive intervention that can assist in increasing court appearance rates,” explaining courts used reminders ranging from manual phone calls to automatic text messages or phone calls.
“The Alameda County pilot project reported significant success with their court date reminder System…Prior to the implementation of the court date reminder system…individuals released on their own recognizance had a 47 percent court appearance rate.
“After 15 Court date reminder systems have been proven to increase court appearance rates for individuals on pretrial release. Studies indicate court date reminder systems can reduce failure-to-appear rates by 26 percent, with corresponding reductions in court costs associated with failures to appear.
“Regarding race, individuals of all racial groups were more likely to be released on their own recognizance after the implementation of the program; for misdemeanors, the impact of program implementation on pretrial release was larger for Black individuals than for individuals of other races,” the council said.
“After program implementation, Black individuals booked on misdemeanors were three percent more likely to be released pretrial on OR/PM compared to white individuals (a statistically significant difference), and Hispanic individuals and individuals of other or unknown race categories had no significant difference compared to white individuals,” the report stated.
Regarding gender, “men and women were both more likely to be released on their own recognizance after program implementation; however, the increase was greater for men.
“Before program implementation, men booked on misdemeanors were 1.5 percent less likely to be released OR/PM compared to women booked on misdemeanors of similar severity and offense type. After program implementation, men booked on misdemeanors were 1.8 percent more likely to be released OR/PM compared to women. For both misdemeanors and felonies, the program was still associated with a significant increase in pretrial release on OR/PM for women, but the increase was larger for men,” the report added.
