Advocacy

PJI assists state and local governments in improving their pretrial practices.  We are often invited to meet individually with judges, county executives, and others to assist stakeholders in determining what pretrial laws, policies and practices would be helpful in their jurisdictions.

We are also invited regularly to speak about pretrial justice at meetings and conferences state pretrial association meetings, the National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies annual conference, as well as at meetings and conferences held by the National Association of Counties, the Council of State Governments, the American Bar Association, the American Probation and Parole Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Judicial College, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the State Justice Institute, the Open Society Justice Institute, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the National Institute of Justice, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

• American Bar Association’s Standards Committee – PJI is on their Task Force for Diversion and Special Courts. This task force is drafting Standards for Diversion and Special Courts intended to provide guidance to judges, prosecutors, defenders and others interested in alternatives to the reliance on traditional criminal sanctions and in addressing the underlying causes of individual criminal misconduct.
  
  
• PJI is a regular attendee of the quarterly meetings of the National Commission on Community Corrections, facilitated by Don Santorelli and administratively supported by the National Association of Counties and the Center for Community Corrections. 
  
  
• The Bureau of Justice Assistance asked PJI to present a workshop on pretrial services at their Tribal Community Corrections Summit (co-hosted with the Bureau of Indian Affairs). 
  
  
• PJI Executive Director Tim Murray provided the opening keynote address at the 2006 annual conference of the National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies.  PJI staff hosted three workshops during that conference.  The 2007 conference in late September will find PJI taking all seven staff – a first in PJI history.
  
  
• PJI is an active member of the NIC Pretrial Network, which led to their co-sponsorship of the Pretrial Justice Research Roundtable.

Your Donations help support our advocacy efforts and other projects at PJI.