Part Two
In 2016, eleven counties committed to participate in local criminal justice reform initiatives through Indiana’s Evidence-Based Decision Making (EBDM) Initiative in collaboration with the Indiana EBDM policy team (state team).
Since then, all eleven counties, under the leadership of their local EBDM policy teams and guided by the state team, have launched pretrial pilot programs that follow best practices in pretrial release and supervision. The pilot sites have implemented evidence-based practices in the following areas:
- Indiana Risk Assessment System – Pretrial Assessment Tool (IRAS-PAT) results used to guide pretrial release and supervision decisions
- Defense counsel and a deputy counsel available at initial hearings so the court can quickly review release decisions and conditions for persons not released prior to initial hearing
- Locally established procedures for determining pretrial release conditions and responses to pretrial violations
- Text or telephone notification systems that remind defendants of court dates from one to several days in advance of the hearing date
- Data collection to evaluate pretrial outcomes to determine pretrial court appearance rates and safety rates (the percentage of pretrial defendants not rearrested during the pretrial period)