In October, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) assembled the inaugural meeting of the Pre-Trial Justice Working Group.  This gathering of professionals from private foundations, courts, police, prosecution offices, public defenders, and various other law enforcement disciplines grows out of the National Symposium on Pretrial Justice held in Washington, DC last summer.  I attended as did Chief Judge Eric Washington who is the Chair of the Confernce of Chief Justices. Chief Judge Washington has made improvement of pre trial decision making a top priority during his tenure as Chair of the Conference.  With staff support from United State Department of Justice , the Pre-Trial Justice Working Group will meet regularly to prepare and execute actions that will cause an increased number of courts to make pretrial release decisions founded upon evidence-based risk assessments rather than upon financial conditions.

Relying upon abundant empirical data collected by the non-profit Pretrial Justice Institute, the Working Group plans to establish judicial education curricula, demonstration projects, media outreach, and technical assistance programs to persuade more and more courts that evidence-based risk assessments of an accused, transparent information-sharing of those assessments with judges, prosecutors and defenders; and effective tracking of the results of release decisions will result in significantly fewer unnecessary incarcerations of defendants.  DOJ organizers firmly believe these efforts in turn will significantly reduce unjust confinements caused by defendant indigence and produce cost-savings for relevant criminal justice agencies.

Those interested in learning more about this endeavor should contact NCSC’s participant on the Working Group, Judge Gregory Mize at GMize@NCSC.org or at 202-607-6111.  (Mize) or they can contact me at 612-348-4389.