Orange County NC Website
22 <br /> <br />• increasing opportunities for pre-arrest diversion <br />• employing mental health professionals to work directly with individuals incarcerated at <br />the County detention center to assess and refer to treatment in the community; and <br />• continuing to collect data and measure performance on County efforts. <br /> <br />Cait Fenhagen read the resolution: <br />RES-2018-025 <br /> <br />ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> <br />RESOLUTION SUPPORTING 3DaysCount™ – A NATIONWIDE EFFORT TO MAKE <br />COMMUNITIES SAFER AND ENSURE BETTER OUTCOMES FOR ALL BY APPLYING <br />COMMON SENSE SOLUTIONS TO WIDESPREAD PRETRIAL JUSTICE CHALLENGES <br /> <br />WHEREAS, nearly 12 million people are booked into United States jails each year, mostly for <br />nonviolent misdemeanors; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, more than 60 percent of people in jail are not convicted – detained before trial <br />largely because they are too poor to post even small money bond amounts – costing local <br />governments a nationwide aggregate of nearly $14 billion annually in incarceration expenses; <br />and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, pretrial detention is deeply disruptive to people’s lives and can have serious <br />consequences, from interrupted education and medical treatment to lost jobs, housing, and <br />even custody of children; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, the money bail system places a disproportionate and unfair burden on people of <br />color, who, on average, face higher bail amounts even as they have fewer resources as a result <br />of chronic, systemic exclusion from economic opportunity; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, research shows that when people who are most likely to appear in court and stay <br />out of trouble are detained for even three days, they become more likely to be arrested for new <br />criminal activity during the pretrial period compared to similar individuals released within just 24 <br />hours; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, the money bail system allows nearly half of those least likely to succeed on pretrial <br />release to quickly buy their release from jail with little to no meaningful support or supervision, <br />without regard for the needs of victims, witnesses, and the broader community; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, the goals of 3DaysCount™ are to help states reduce unnecessary arrests by <br />expanding the use of citations or summons, replace money bail with non-financial, least <br />restrictive conditions, restrict detention to the small number of people for whom no condition or <br />combination of conditions can reasonably assure appearance in court and public safety, and <br />reduce disparity within the pretrial justice system; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, Orange County has already implemented many of the recommendations of the <br />Pretrial Justice Institute including internalizing the Pretrial Release program in the Criminal <br />Justice Resource Department, using an evidence-based pretrial risk assessment tool, ensuring <br />the presence of defense counsel at first appearances, increasing opportunities for pre-arrest <br />diversion, employing mental health professionals to work directly with individuals incarcerated at