NCJ Number
182313
Date Published
December 1999
Length
104 pages
Annotation
This manual aims to complement the information that the Pretrial Services Resource Center provides in response to technical assistance inquiries from pretrial services program administrators regarding bail, pretrial services, and the establishment and operation of a pretrial program.
Abstract
The first sections present a history of bail and pretrial services, with emphasis on issues relating to bail reform, preventive detention, and jail overcrowding. The next sections examine current challenges that pretrial services programs are experiencing, including victims’ rights, dealing with the needs of special populations such as persons with mental illness and juveniles in adult court, the use of new technologies, and confidentiality concerns. They also describe current and often innovative practices of pretrial services programs relating to each of a program’s functions, including information gathering, assessment, supervision and follow-up, and management. The next chapter presents a checklist that new programs should use to orient themselves to their systems and understand how their systems operate. Case examples; footnotes; and appended materials on assessing a program’s level of services, excerpts of national pretrial release standards pertaining to confidentiality of pretrial records, sample pretrial interview forms, and names and addresses of contact persons for programs referenced in the text