About us
Since 2018 we have been working together to reduce the number of people held in jail before their trial in Virginia.
The Virginia Pretrial Justice Coalition aims to reduce pretrial detention in Virginia. As part of the nationwide movement to eliminate mass incarceration, we pursue strategies that make sense within Virginia’s current legal landscape. The Coalition is guided by two primary principles: we must (1) reduce the number of people held in our jails pretrial; and (2) eliminate racial disparities in pretrial detention and pretrial surveillance.
We work to advance meaningful pretrial reform by regularly evaluating strategies that address bail conditions (e.g., cash bail, presumptions against bail), legal representation (i.e., how early and consistently individuals have a lawyer during the legal process), criminalization events (e.g., what counts as a jailable offense), availability of information on how the criminal legal system operates, and more. We then advocate for policy change based on which strategies will have the intended impact given the context of the unique legal system in Virginia. We have consistently been a leading voice advocating for pretrial reform at the Virginia General Assembly.
Our membership is composed of a variety of organizations and individuals, and we center the voices of those who have been most impacted by pretrial detention.
