Orange County NC Website
<br />ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br /> Meeting Date: April 17, 2018 <br /> Action Agenda <br /> Item No. 4-e <br /> <br />SUBJECT: Resolution in Support of 3DaysCount™ <br /> <br />DEPARTMENT: County Manager, Criminal <br />Justice Resource Office <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />Resolution in Support of 3DaysCount™ <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> INFORMATION CONTACT: <br /> Bonnie Hammersley, 245-2300 <br />Caitlin Fenhagen, 245-2303 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />PURPOSE: To consider a Resolution in Support of 3DaysCount™ – A Nationwide Effort To <br />Make Communities Safer And Ensure Better Outcomes For All By Applying Common Sense <br />Solutions To Widespread Pretrial Justice Challenges. <br /> <br />BACKGROUND: At the April 3, 2018 Board meeting, the Board voiced an interest in <br />considering a Resolution in Support of 3DaysCount™ – A Nationwide Effort To Make <br />Communities Safer And Ensure Better Outcomes For All By Applying Common Sense Solutions <br />To Widespread Pretrial Justice Challenges. 3DaysCount™ is an initiative of the Pretrial Justice <br />Institute’s. Commissioner Renee Price provided a sample resolution as the basis for the <br />attached resolution for Board consideration. <br /> <br />Nearly 12 million people are booked into United States jails each year, mostly for nonviolent <br />misdemeanors, and a majority are detained before trial largely because they are too poor to <br />post even small money bond amounts – costing local governments a nationwide aggregate of <br />nearly $14 billion annually in incarceration expenses. Pretrial detention is also deeply disruptive <br />to people’s lives and can have serious consequences, from interrupted education and medical <br />treatment to lost jobs, housing, and even custody of children. Research also shows that when <br />people who are most likely to appear in court and stay out of trouble are detained for even three <br />days, they become more likely to be arrested for new criminal activity during the pretrial period <br />compared to similar individuals released within just 24 hours. <br /> <br />The goals of 3DaysCount™ are to help states reduce unnecessary arrests by expanding the <br />use of citations or summons, replace money bail with non-financial, least restrictive conditions, <br />restrict detention to the small number of people for whom no condition or combination of <br />conditions can reasonably assure appearance in court and public safety, and reduce disparity <br />within the pretrial justice system. <br /> <br />Orange County has already implemented many of the recommendations of the Pretrial Justice <br />Institute including: <br />• internalizing the Pretrial Release program in the Criminal Justice Resource Department <br />1