Our policy wins
These are some of the policy wins we’ve had:
The Pretrial Data Project was a multi-year effort that called for the annual collection and publication of pretrial data across the Commonwealth of Virginia. Through consistent advocacy by the Pretrial Justice Coalition and other reform-minded organizations, a bill mandating the release of data was passed in 2021 (HB2110, SB1391) and the initial report was released in September of 2021. The initial report followed the progress of a group of cases that took place in October 2017.
Now the project lives with the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission, which produces reports annually based on each full year’s cases, publishes the datasets, and creates an online dashboard for the public to view. The 2022 report produced data for the entire 2018 year. The data is disaggregated by race and tracks many variables and outcomes.
The Pretrial Data Project
Repeal of harmful presumptions against bail
In 2021, the Virginia General Assembly repealed the harmful system of presuming that someone should be detained solely based on what they were charged with. That system was known as presumptions against bail. Presumptions against bail meant that because people are more likely to plead guilty when they are held without bail, regardless of guilt or innocence, prosecutors could influence the course of a case by deciding to bring the type of charges that come with the presumption against bail. With the repeal of these presumptions, the responsibility to make individualized release decisions, including imposing any conditions or detention, was returned to judges and magistrates.
The new legislation replaced the unfair system of presumptions with specific factors for a judicial officer to apply when making bail determinations. The factors outlined in the statute were developed in consultation with many stakeholders, including advocates for survivors of domestic violence. These factors are a better way to address individualized safety concerns and train judicial officers to assess situations directly rather than using charges as a proxy. Doing anything less denies a person their presumption of innocence.
Now with the repeal of presumptions, the decision-making power lies with the judge/ magistrate, and release conditions can be individualized based on the person and the situation instead of jail being the go-to outcome. “The effect of this repeal has been dramatic. In the first six months after the repeal, 8,482 Virginians had at least one offense that previously would have triggered a presumption against bail (annualized, this figure would be 16,964 individuals). The state agency estimated that on average each person would’ve been held in jail pretrial for 47.54 days.” By not automatically detaining people, more than $65 million in jail operating costs have been saved each year and thousands of people have avoided major disruptions in their life such as job or housing loss, while keeping our communities just as safe.