At Tuesday’s Leon County Board of County Commissioners meeting, the commissioners received a status report on the 2020 Annual Supervised Pretrial Release Program Report and authorized staff to submit the report to the Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller for Leon County.
The Supervised Pretrial Release Program Report is required by Florida Statutes, Section 907.43, also known as the “Citizen’s Right to Know Act.” The report must identify program activities, funding sources, the number of defendants assessed after arrest and the number ordered into the Pretrial Release program by the court.
In 2018, the Criminal Justice Data Transparency initiative amended the Citizens’ Right to Know Act by adding new data elements to the annual Program Report. These data points include: type of release (with or without bond); the number of defendants charged with dangerous crimes, nonviolent felonies, or misdemeanors only; and the number of defendants with no prior criminal conviction.
According to the meeting agenda, the Supervised Pretrial Release Program is an alternative to bond for defendants who are likely to appear in court and unlikely to present a danger to the community if released. In March of 2019, Administrative Orders (AOs) 2019-05 and 2019-06 were issued to guide the Supervised Pretrial Release Program to ensure the consistent, objective application of criteria when considering a defendant’s eligibility and appropriate conditions for release.
The goal of the program is to reduce the amount of nonviolent offenders who remained in custody because of their inability to post bond. Since the AOs were issued, the County has seen an uptick in the number of defendants who were released without bond. From 515 defendants released in 2018, to 1,174 in 2019 and 1,097 in 2020.
In 2020, of the 1,609 defendants accepted into the Supervised Pretrial Release Program:
- 65% or 1,044 of the supervised defendants had no violations, were still enrolled, or had completed the program as of the end of the calendar year.
- 35% or 565 of the supervised defendants violated the pretrial release conditions.
- 68% or 1,097 of the supervised defendants were released without posting a monetary bond.
County Commission Receives Supervised Pretrial Release Program Report added by Casey Owens on
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100% correct “snidely”… the program is a failure. And I concur with Dennis as well. Under the NazCrat regime, “Crime Does Pay”… three squares a day, free cable and internet, free gym membership, stimulus checks, and now the opportunity to vote for the NaziCrats who helped make crime pay in the USA. Dementia Joe will soon sign an EO changing the plaque on the Statue of Liberty to read, “Send us your tired, lazy, thugs, rapists, traffickers, thieves, addicts, pedos, murderers…”
I’m with Tony on this… like the old commercial said, “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time, doowahdoowhahdoowha”. We messed up when it changed from a penile system to a rehabilitation system.
With the stated 35% failure rate in the article the Pre Trial Release Program is a total failure as it is being administered in Leon County.
Leon County is so different from the other Florida Counties that comparing Leon with Broward or Miami Dade would be meaningless.
So…when did it become my responsibility as a tax payer to to pay for a government program that supervises defendants so that they show up for trial? That’s what a bond does and what makes a defendant show up for trial is the cost of the bond if he or she fail to show. It’s responsibility of defendant to show up for trail, not the taxpayer.
Here’s a Thought…….EVERYONE who commits a Crime (other than Ticketable Offences) should be made to pay a Monetary Bail to be released before Trial, EVERYONE. Make them uniform to the Crime, that way it can’t be Racist. Everyone should know by now that they WILL get Caught so, Bail is NOT Racist, it’s FACT. Can’t afford Bail, don’t do the Crime.