Washington Courts: Press Release Detail

Washington Pretrial Reform Task Force launched to review risk assessment and release practices

SEATAC, Wash. — Members of a newly created task force of  Washington’s judicial branch met for the first time today to outline plans for examining policies and practices regarding pretrial detention of persons charged with crimes in Washington.

The Pretrial Reform Task Force will work for approximately 18 months gathering data to formulate recommendations for expanding pretrial release. The Task Force was launched at the urging of the Washington State Superior Court Judges’ Association, the District and Municipal Court Judges’ Association, and the Supreme Court’s Minority and Justice Commission.

“Every day across Washington state, trial judges make decisions regarding pretrial release or detention that have consequences for our communities and for people accused of crimes. The Pretrial Reform Task Force will assess the quality of the information judges have to make those decisions,” said King County Superior Court Judge Sean P. O’Donnell, president of the Superior Court Judges’ Association.

“The Task Force will also evaluate ways to minimize the impact of pretrial detention on low risk offenders by exploring safe and cost-effective alternatives to full incarceration,” O’Donnell said. “The SCJA is a proud partner in this effort, and we welcome the opportunity to improve our practice here in Washington with help from community members, criminal justice stakeholders, and national experts.”

The Task Force will partner with the Pretrial Justice Institute (PJI) through its 3DaysCount Campaign, which is working across the U.S. to focus on evaluating evidence-based improvements in pretrial — the phase of the criminal justice process that extends from the first contact with law enforcement to resolution of any resulting charges. Emerging research shows that many persons detained for days, weeks or months before trial are in detention because of their inability to post bail as opposed to risk to the community or risk of flight.

       “Having access to empirical evidence can assist judges in the difficult task of making informed release decisions,” said Spokane Municipal Court Judge Mary Logan, co-chair of the joint Superior Court/District and Municipal Court Trial Court Sentencing and Supervision Committee. “It could curb over-incarceration pretrial if we are able to make those decisions better informed with a multitude of readily available tools such as risk assessments.”

Washington Supreme Court Justice Mary Yu, co-chair of the Minority and Justice Commission, believes that “we have to provide a broad menu of tools that will enable judges to presume release and accurately assess the risk an individual poses. The social cost of pre-adjudication incarceration merits our attention. We are gathering all of the stakeholders to explore options.”

The Task Force includes judges, prosecutors, public defenders, bail business owners, legal aid attorneys, court administrators and officials, researchers, and more. The first step is to collect data and information needed to understand current policies, practices, impacts and costs of the pretrial system in Washington courts.

Task Force members today heard reports on successful pretrial reform efforts in Yakima and Spokane, the use of data in developing programs that fit a community’s needs, an explanation of risk assessment tools, learned more about the national 3DaysCount Campaign and national research, and discussed the Task Force’s next steps — the creation of work groups to focus on critical components of pretrial reform.

The Washington Supreme Court in 2016 hosted a symposium presented by the Minority and Justice Commission in Olympia titled “Pretrial Justice: Reducing the Rate of Incarceration,” which featured national experts discussing growing trends involving pretrial incarceration. The symposium is available for viewing on TVW at https://www.tvw.org/watch/?eventID=2016051095.

The Washington State Superior Court Judges’ Association was created by state lawmakers in 1933 to provide a voice for superior court judges in education and training of judges, promoting ethics, improving the administration of justice, and in relating to other judicial branch members and branches of government.

The Washington State District and Municipal Court Judges’ Association was created by state lawmakers in 1961 to provide information on the workings and condition of the state’s district and municipal courts (courts of limited jurisdiction, CLJ), and to suggest improvements for the administration of CLJ courts and the delivery of justice.  

The Washington State Minority and Justice Commission was established by the state Supreme Court in 1990 to determine whether racial and ethnic bias exists in the courts of Washington and to take creative steps to overcome and prevent them. The Commission grew out of a task force established in 1988 at the urging of state legislators.

CONTACT: Intisar Surur, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington Superior Court Judges’ Association, (360) 704-1932, Intisar.Surur@courts.wa.gov; Lorrie Thompson, Senior Communications Officer, Administrative Office of the Courts, (360) 705-5347, Lorrie.Thompson@courts.wa.gov; Fiona Druge, Pretrial Justice Institute,  (646) 755-6126.