GETTING PEOPLE OUT OF THE SYSTEM QUICKLY

Pretrial assessment tools prioritizing release are essential to upholding the principle of presumed innocence and protecting the rights of individuals awaiting trial. These tools help ensure that those who are likely to attend court and unlikely to commit new crimes are not unnecessarily detained and unnecessarily experiencing the consequence of of pretrial incarceration, such as loss of employment, housing, and the destabilization of their families.

Building and evaluating such tools is one approach to getting people out of the system as quickly as possible. Assessment tools can also promote fairness and equity in the criminal legal system, ultimately leading to more effective and just pretrial processes. To that end, JSP works across more than 20 jurisdictions across the U.S. to take a critical approach to building and/or implementing pretrial assessment tools prioritizing release.