Virginia Passes Legislation to Rein In Pretrial Services and Force Basic Accountability

Virginia takes on the issue of accountability and forces transparency in pretrial services division.

April 17 2018

In November, 2017 the Virginia Crime Commission issued a report on the state of pretrial services programs, often posited as an alternative to financial conditions of bail.

Since the 1960s, bail reformers have quoted Robert F. Kennedy for the idea that people should not be in jail that could otherwise be “supervised in the community.”  Nationally, Virginia is sometimes claimed a model of reform, having created the new seventh heaven of pretrial.

But not so fast.  The Crime Commission issued a report that noted one key fact: the pretrial services programs in Virginia lack data to back up even the modest claims of success.  Of course, the Commission also noted that despite the millions of dollars that has been spent on these programs, “the total pretrial population has gradually increased.”  The Commission also made another startling finding: “Pretrial has been in existence for over 20 years in Virginia, yet confusion remains about what pretrial services are and what role they play in the criminal justice system.”

In fact, the staff of the Commission “identified multiple concerns relating to the administration of pretrial programs that need to be addressed.”  Among them:

1. Practices vary greatly across the state.
2. Dysfunctional agencies and “no formal auditing or policy review process exists to measure compliance with these standards”
3. There is a lack of basic and “necessary” data
4. Several other critical management and integrity issues.

The Commission also made another startling finding: “Pretrial has been in existence for over 20 years in Virginia, yet confusion remains about what pretrial services are and what role they play in the criminal justice system.”

The legislature heard the call of the Criminal Justice Commission and took action to force pretrial services agencies to be accountable so that policy-makers would be in a better position to evaluate the funding needs and efficacy of such programs.  House Bill 996, by Delegate C. Todd Gilbert, was passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor.  It will now force these agencies to report out their statistics so that everyone will know whether this program actually works.  In addition, it will require annual audits of each pretrial program in Virginia so that policy-makers and legislatures can fully understand whether the programs are cost-effective.

While the national debate on eliminating money bail continues, with reformers advocating for pretrial services programs like Virginia’s in place of the current bail system, it might be time for legislators in other states to take notice—these programs are largely unaccountable and should be called to account before expanding government supervision and installing the use of algorithmic justice.

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