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Birth of NAPSA
The National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies (NAPSA) was incorporated on August 8, 1973. It was conceived by a small group of pretrial program directors who recognized the need to join together to promote the growth of pretrial services and to ensure their effectiveness. The goal of NAPSA is expressed in Article II of its Articles of Incorporation: “To serve as a national forum for ideas and issues in the area of pretrial services, to promote the establishment of agencies to provide such services, to encourage responsibility among its members, to promote research and development in the field, to establish a mechanism for the exchange of information, and to increase professional competence through the development of professional standards and education.”
From its birth, NAPSA has defined pretrial services to include two separate and distinct functions – pretrial release and pretrial diversion, or, as it is sometimes called, pretrial intervention. Pretrial release refers to the decision of the court whether to release or detain a person who has been arrested for a criminal offense. Pretrial diversion or intervention refers to the decision of either the court or the prosecutor to hold prosecution of a criminal case in abeyance while the defendant participates in a program that seeks to address the underlying causes for the defendant’s arrest. If the defendant successfully completes the program, the charges are dismissed.
NAPSA holds a national conference every year, in addition to numerous regional conferences and training sessions. In 1978, NAPSA issued its first edition of Standards for both pretrial release and pretrial diversion. The release standards have been updated twice since then, in 1998 and in 2004. The diversion standards were updated in 1995.
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