What's Happening in Pretrial Justice? March 2025

Kevin Beckford and Kiki Dunston present at the 2025 Beyond the Bars conference.

Moving the Needle. Beyond Bail: A National Survey of Pretrial Justice Reform in the United States, by The Bail Project. This report provides a descriptive analysis of state and federal legislative changes and significant court decisions that have restricted or minimized the use of wealth-based detention. This may include restricting cash bail, or decreasing the charges eligible for cash bail, prohibitions on assigning unaffordable bail amounts or increased use of pretrial release without financial conditions.

This Pie Shouldn’t Get Bigger. In the United States, people are locked up in thousands of different kinds of facilities - the Whole Pie 2025 from the Prison Policy Initiative lets us see the impact in one cohesive graphic. While the authors caution against making year-to-year comparisons because of data variations, they did note some trends in this year’s report: from 2022 to 2023 (the most recent year available), jail authorities locked up about 12,000 more people (2%); there was an increase in youth confinement by 11% after two decades of steady declines; overall, the total confined population of “the pie” grew by about 2%, or 38,000 people.

Hawaii Looks to Limit Arrests for Misdemeanors. HB 128 seeks to reduce arrests by establishing specific factors to allow for an arrest without a warrant, and notes that when a person is arrested for a petty misdemeanor or violation, the officer must record which of those factors justified the arrest. In the first section of the bill, the bill notes, “The legislature also finds that arrests are highly disruptive to a person's life. Despite the fundamental principle of the presumption of innocence on which the justice system is built, arrests cause embarrassment and, in some cases, trauma...”

Municipal Courts Draw Attention in Colorado. HB 1147 seeks to create sentencing parity between municipal offenses and comparable state-level offenses, after some municipal courts used their authority to jail people for up to 364 days for offenses that are capped at 10 days in state court. The bill also would create a right to legal counsel in municipal court, and require municipal court proceedings to be open to the public.

New Yorkers Protest Discovery Rollbacks. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s efforts to diminish discovery laws have been met with protests and pushback from the Alliance to Protect Kalief’s Law. Kalief’s Law was passed in 2019 and requires the state to promptly and automatically disclose evidence; the law is named after a teenager who spent years on Rikers Island awaiting trial without access to the evidence against him and later died by suicide after his charges were dismissed.

Oklahoma Not OK with Fines and Fees. Gov. Kevin Stitt is seeking to decrease the state’s reliance on fines and fees, noting that “high fees keep people trapped in this cycle and contribute to higher recidivism.” Approximately 25% of the state’s court operating budget comes from court fines. This essay from Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform lays out how fines and fees particularly harm rural areas.

Failure to Appear Most Often Unintentional. A new study from the Crime and Justice Institute finds that most people who miss court either forgot the court date or were unaware of the need to appear in court. Researchers based their findings on interviews with people who were booked for failure to appear; in the rare event of intentionally missing court, people reported being afraid to go to court or believing the outcome would be unfair. These people were more likely to be charged with a serious offense.

Victories in Virginia. Justice Forward Virginia reports several victories in the pretrial arena. HB 1886 makes it clear courts should not enter a conviction against someone who has completed all the terms of a deferred disposition except payment of court costs. SB 1191 allows for the release of pretrial data to a state longitudinal data system to allow researchers to better understand how pretrial conditions are related to other aspects of people’s lives.

What’s Up at PJI?

From Kiki Dunston, our Consultant for Local Change Work: This month has been a powerful blend of advocacy, collaboration, and creative visioning. I engaged in a meeting centered on collaboration and advocacy within pretrial justice and harm reduction, deepening the conversation around meaningful change. At the Beyond the Bars Conference at Columbia University, Kevin Beckford and I co-led the workshop "Sankofa Stories: Harnessing Narrative Design to Transform Pretrial Justice," exploring the power of storytelling in reshaping justice systems. I also attended the FreeHer event hosted by The National Council, where a stunning photographic exhibit captured the impact of the 10th Anniversary FreeHer March and Rally in D.C., alongside a screening of "Commuted." Additionally, I’ve been brainstorming a visioning project focused on developing a toolkit that explores how arts institutions can collaborate with communities—using storytelling and creative expression to amplify the voices and visions emerging from community listening circles.

We’re Curious 💡

It's been five years since PJI came out with its position against risk assessments, and we're wondering what that has meant to you and for your work. Did you rethink your position on risk assessments, or use this information in training or discussions?

Tell us at pji@pretrial.org.