The Montgomery County PA Court of Common Pleas recently announced the implementation of a Pretrial Services Program in criminal cases. The program will be responsible for making bail recommendations and setting treatment requirements for those involved with addictions. The Court is also looking at setting up a “risk assessment tool” which would provide judges with guidelines about the risk a particular individual poses to either not appear for scheduled court dates or to commit new crimes while on bail. The goal will be to find a race-neutral set of criteria that only incarcerates those who need to be incarcerated and avoids incarceration of individuals who merely can’t afford to post a bail.
On the one hand the goal of equal justice for all is laudable. On the other hand we are concerned that, like has happened with sentencing guidelines, some courts will be afraid to impose fair pretrial bail if it deviates from the bail suggested by the risk assessment tool. Hopefully this concern will be misplaced but only time will tell.
Most interesting at this point is what practical effect this new program will have on bail being set in Montgomery County, PA. Will bail go up? Will bail do down? It will be interesting to see if there is an across the board trend or if we see a variety of impacts. Stay tuned…
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