NCJ Number
186592
Date Published
1999
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the need for a guidelines approach to pretrial decision making and examines the problems of implementing innovative policy changes within a court system.
Abstract
In 1985 Goldkamp and Gottfredson reported on the success of an experiment testing the efficacy of a voluntary guidelines approach to pretrial release decision making in the Philadelphia Municipal Court. As a follow-up, the National Institute of Justice funded a second round of projects to determine whether the initial success could be replicated in other, quite different, jurisdictions. This article assesses efforts to develop and introduce pretrial release guidelines in one of the "second round" sites--Dade County, FL. The majority of the judiciary believed that voluntary guidelines would be good for their court and there was full and committed participation in all aspects of the developmental stage. However, implementation was, at best, fragmentary. The study reinforces the need for implementation of the guidelines concept. Judges continue to make subjective decisions, sometimes based on a sub rosa agenda, and in virtual ignorance of their consequences. The article claims that the components which buttress the guidelines philosophy-- information, rationality, and feedback--offer an opportunity for more effective decision making. Figures, notes, references