Program aims to release lower-risk arrestees awaiting trial

Yuba County is one of more than a dozen state courts set to receive funding to assess and release lower-risk arrestees.

The Judicial Council of California approved $68 million on Aug. 9 to fund pilot projects in 16 trial courts aimed at releasing more arrestees from jail while they await trial – Yuba County is set to receive $844,000.

“The present grant will allow our local court to share information with the probation department and extract the data needed for the grant,” said Jeff Pask. “They will also be linked with the Judicial Council of California transmitting data in accordance with the grant’s requirements.”

Pask, the assistant chief probation officer with Yuba County, said there are several steps to follow before it’s implemented.

“There are still budget revisions, a contracting process, mandatory training and site visits to complete,” he said. “Simultaneously, the probation department must create a

new probation officer position to fill the slot created by the grant.”

He said the hiring multistep process,

which could take several months, includes receiving applications, testing, interviews and passing a background investigation.

“Yuba County’s pretrial

program originated with the Recidivism Reduction Grant from 2015 and was awarded to Yuba County Superior Court and funded two probation officers,” he said. “A pretrial program was developed by the probation department in collaboration with the district attorney’s office, public defender and our superior court.”

Pask said probation spearheaded the development of the pretrial assessment, using multiple factors to determine an arrestee’s risk of reoffending and the likelihood they will appear for court, if released.

“With two officers assigned, probation was able to incorporate a supervision element to the program. However, when the grant expired in 2017,

probation was forced to self-fund the program and could no longer afford to devote two officers,” he said. “The current pretrial ‘unit’ consists of one officer who completes all offender assessments and prepares reports for the court.”

He said the present grant, which is funded through Senate Bill 10, will restore the unit to two officers and will enable them to reintroduce the supervision element.

“The pretrial officer completed 392 reports, of which 366 made it to arraignment,” Pask said, citing 2018 data. “Of those, approximately 70 percent of arrestees remained detained while approximately 30 percent were released. A majority of those released are given terms

by the court and directed to report to the probation department for supervision.”

Pask said the pretrial officer currently has about 65 people on his caseload and with the addition of the second officer from the grant, they will be able to devote more resources to the supervision aspect of the program.

“This would include

residence verification and compliance with the arrestee’s conditions of release,” he said. “The supervision element will also allow the probation officers more time with each arrestee. Those receptive to treatment will be referred to probation’s Day Reporting Center where an array of services (e.g. drug counseling, GED program) are available.”