Mesa County, Colorado Evidence-Based Pretrial Initiative

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2013

Mesa County, Colorado, has had a pretrial services program for the past 20 years, but until recently it was mediocre at best – operating on standards set by tradition, rather than evidence-based research. Then, in 2010, an analysis of the local criminal justice system, conducted as part of Mesa County’s Evidence Based Decision Making Initiative, revealed a lack of evidence-based decision making throughout the pretrial process. The program’s pretrial risk tool did not have objective, empirically derived criteria, but rather subjective and non-standardized criteria. The pretrial supervision methods were not based on risk, but rather on crime class. The program’s response to violations was not based on best practices, but rather on local tradition. There was not adequate statistical tracking of pretrial outcomes. After the analysis, the Mesa County EBDM Executive Committee, a collaborative policy body of system-wide stakeholders, selected five change targets for in depth study and development of improved, evidence-based policy and practice. The pretrial reform objectives comprised one of these four areas, and a Pretrial Committee was established including judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and jail, law enforcement, and pretrial services representatives. This group collaboratively approved numerous new processes and tools that have dramatically improved the pretrial justice process over the past two years. A local pretrial vision statement was created. A validated risk instrument was implemented. Risk-based pretrial release and supervision guidelines were developed. Meaningful process and outcome measures are now being collected and used to guide policy discussions and program improvements. From these efforts, Mesa County’s pretrial program and process has become a model for Colorado and other states.