Leon County’s Pretrial Release Program Supervised 2,539 Defendants in 2024

On Tuesday March 18, Leon County will present the 2024 Supervised Pretrial Release Program Report to the Board of County Commissioners.

Section 907.043, Florida Statutes (F.S.), cited as the “Citizens’ Right-to-Know Act,” requires that a pretrial release program submit an annual report to the governing body and the Clerk of the Court by March 31st each year.

In an effort to manage the population in the Leon County Detention Facility, the Leon County Supervised Pretrial Release Program (SPTR) is an alternative to monetary bond for defendants who are likely to appear in court and unlikely to present a danger to the community if released.

The Leon County Supervised Pretrial Division is located at 501 Appleyard Drive. The funding sources for the SPTR Division include local general revenue totaling $1,013,811.25 and the number of persons employed by the Division totaled 14 staff members during 2024.

The Numbers

Statues require the report to identify a number of things including, funding sources, the number of defendants assessed and interviewed after arrest for pretrial release, and the number of defendants ordered into the pretrial release program by the court.

During 2024, the SPTR report indicates a total of 2,539 defendants were supervised. The report also indicates:

– 1,781 initially entered the SPTR Program in the calendar year (2024) and the remaining 758 entered during a previous year.

– 1,914 or 75% of the defendants supervised had no violations.

– 625 of the defendants supervised (25%) violated their condition of pretrial release for one of the following reasons: 308 (12%) tested positive for illegal drug or alcohol use or failed to maintain contact with their Pretrial Release Officer, 222 (9%) committed a new offense, and 95 (4%) failed to appear for a court hearing.

The specific statutory citation for each criminal charge related to a defendant indicated that 489 defendants were accepted into the pretrial release program with dangerous crimes as defined under F.S. 907.041. See full list of dangerous crimes here.

The report indicates 575 defendants were accepted into the pretrial release program with non-violent felonies, 687 defendants were accepted into the pretrial release program having only misdemeanors; and 30 defendants’ arrests were expunged or sealed in accordance with F.S. 943.0585 and 943.059.

Leon County Highlights Savings

The report indicates the average daily operating cost of the jail per inmate was $98.49. The use of SPTR as an alternative, costs $4.08 per day. Based on these numbers, the report indicates the program diverted an estimated total of 276,670 inmate days from the Leon County Detention Facility. This resulted in a daily savings of $94.42. The total cost savings was $26,120,414.70.