NCJ Number
144496
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 57 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1993) Pages: 23-27
Date Published
1993
Length
5 pages
Annotation
An ideal pretrial program based on national standards and the experience of program administrators, reports and research studies is discussed.
Abstract
The primary goal of the ideal pretrial program is to provide the best information available to judicial officers to assist in the decision to grant bail. The actual work of any pretrial program can be divided into identification and monitoring. The identification process involves selecting arrestees to be interviewed, gathering information from the arrestee that will assist in assessing the likelihood of his returning for trial, verifying this information, and preparing an assessment of the defendant that is given to the bail setting magistrate. In the ideal program, the assessment should be objective and exclude the present charge except where it would affect the conditions of release. Supervision options should be available in the assessment. The judge should be presented some condition or combination of conditions that if imposed would likely ensure the person's appearance and good conduct pending trial. Once the bail decision is made, compliance with the conditions of release must be monitored and notice of violations must be made quickly. An important part of this phase is keeping the defendant informed of all matters related to the trial such as changes in the date or location. Five system characteristics were identified as being important to effective pretrial services. Among these are judicial management, a clear bail statute, liberal use of citation and summons in lieu of detention, early presence of defense counsel and an effective management information system.