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Pretrial Services Program

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The pretrial services program instituted in 1960 was developed with the aim of improving the judicial system. It was set that for a bail to be granted to an arrestee a few things had to be verified to ensure a sound the program worked effectively. Firstly, information about the arrestee was to be verified and scrutinized with the focus on his or her past criminal history, history of drug and alcohol abuse, employment and residency. The chances that an arrestee would fail to appear in court on his day in court had to be assessed. Lastly, supervision was paramount, with the progress of the arrestee being assessed and their compliance with the conditions set before their release. A breach of the conditions set during the release of an arrestee …show more content…

However, who exactly are the police serving and protecting when Chicago 's very own Cook County jail is immensely overpopulated? Cook County jail has been around for more than 180 years, holding all different types of inmates. The jail houses people awaiting trial, those who have been sentenced and are awaiting transfer, and those who haven’t even seen a judge or been given a bond. Cook County officials needed a way to reduce the rapidly growing number of inmates (Goldkamp and R.Gottfredson). Pretrial services were established as a hopeful solution to the overcrowding. Pretrial services program was established in 1990 to reduce the rate at which defendants were failing to appear in court and to offer a viable alternative to housing pretrial defendants in …show more content…

A sum of money is paid in return for a defendant’s temporary freedom for the duration of the case. These bonds are enforced to try to guarantee that a defendant shows up for court. Finally, if the defendant pays their bond, they are allowed to be free until their next court hearing (Neubauer and Fradella). On the other hand, if the defendant cannot pay their bond, they are taken to Cook County Jail where they become known as an inmate. Here they wait for the duration of their case unless they post bond. The sad truth behind the justice system today is that if the defendant doesn’t have money, they have little to no hope of getting through their cases free or in a timely fashion. As people are being stored in jail, valuable money is being wasted. The pretrial services established to cut down on overpopulation are not being used efficiently. Although the justice system is still a work in progress, guidelines have not been established in crucial areas allowing judges to throw bonds at defendants like tennis balls with no specific

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Nationwide, about 62% of people in jail are not serving time they’re just waiting for justice to be served in their case. I can't believe that the numbers are so high and that there is no one that can help those mothers, fathers, grandmas, and more. I feel that it is breaking the 8th amendment because for that person $500 is excessive. That $500 is probably their only money they have to spend on bills. We should not get rid of the bail bonds but improve them so that not so many men and women are not sitting in

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In criminal cases, Pretrial release is where a defendant is released from jail while the criminal case is pending. The release usually begins with a bond (criminal-law.com). Pretrial procedures tend to follow the general pattern of civil cases, but with imperative modifications. The functions of the pretrial release decision by attaining defendants for trial which maintains the integrity of the judicial process, the protections of witnesses and victims, as well as the community from interference, threats, or dangers (americanbar.org). The most crucial crimes are felonies which, the punishment is imprisonment for at least a year, usually in a federal or a state penitentiary.

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Commercial bail bond agencies have been around in the United States since the late 1800s. With four states in the United States that have already banned commercial bail bond agencies, one wonders if commercial bail bond agencies are really needed, and if they are important when it comes to pretrial release. This paper will explore bail bond agencies history and how they became what they are today. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the ways that commercial bail bond agencies are important to pre-trial release, and explore the research and statistics that currently explain why commercial bail bond agencies are important.

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When the person is bailed out of the jail, he will be able to remain free until their trial date. If the person commits a crime while he out on bail, he may be arrested and sent back to jail. Bail Bond You have

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In many cases, individuals who were released on bail went on to commit further offenses while awaiting trial. This raised concerns about the effectiveness of the existing bail system in deterring reoffending and ensuring that justice was served. Another factor that contributed to the need for bail reform was concerns about community safety. The existing bail system did not adequately address the risks to the community posed by individuals who had been charged with serious offenses. There was a growing perception that the system needed to be reformed to ensure that community safety was given greater consideration in bail decisions.

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This paper is to help show how sometimes judges can be Bias or inherent in the amount of bail set and other restrictions for pre-trial release while showing the concept of bail what can be done to prevent arbitrary and potentially prejudiced decisions from being made in the courtroom when it comes to bail by the judge, Also discuss the pros and cons of private vs. public defense. Introduction This paper will show the pros and cons of pre-release and define pre-trail release and bond, arbitrary. bond types also look into the factors of bail amounts a judge looks at to determine how much the defendant’s bail is and a few ways to prevent arbitrary and potentially Prejudice decisions from being made in the court by judges.

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Despite the theory behind the Eighth Amendment, judges often use excessively high bail amounts to prohibit an arrested individual from getting out of jail. This type of excessive bail is often used for people that have been arrested on suspicion of dealing drugs, murder or other crimes where flight is a real possibility. Many people have argued that this type of high bail violates the Eighth Amendment, but almost all have been unsuccessful. There are also situations in which bail is set at a reasonable amount, but the arrestee still cannot afford to pay the bail. When this happens, the arrested individual must wait to ask the judge to lower the bail amount at a special bail hearing or during the defendant 's first court appearance.

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" This means that the person agrees to specific terms from the court in order to be released. One of the terms will be a requirement to appear in court at an assigned date and time. In this case, the individual is allowed to go free without any monetary cost. However, should he/she not show up for the court date, they will be charged with contempt and will be rearrested.

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The bail bond is more like third party that acts as a financial institution that pays the bail on behalf of the arrestee. The way bail bond system works is by making the arrestee pay upfront a nonrefundable percent to the bail bond company, this percent is usually 10% of the whole amount of the bail. [4] Then, the bail bond company pays the bond to the court and when the arrestee goes to his or her trial date the bond company will received the full amount of the bail they posted to the court for the released of the arrestee, so basically the bail bond company at the end receives all of its money back plus they get to keep the nonrefundable 10% that the arrestee paid up front. [4] There has been a lot of debates about the bail bond system because it is not for the benefit of indigent people because at the end indigent arrestees end up paying more than affluent arrestees who are able to pay for their bond themselves. In my opinion, I think that the author of the article is correct about describing the bail bond system as archaic.

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Therefore, the program can further benefit from new reforms. For instance, pre-trial services should be more easily available to defendants. If the courts are going to continue to demand random testing, then they need provide more testing facilities, so that defendants can easily have access to them. In addition, an adjustment needs to be made to the distribution of resources. Well, resources are beneficial and aid in the recovery process, they also form a dependent factor.

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The role of a predisposition report writer as a juvenile probation officer in the juvenile justice system is to provide the court with a full history of the youth offender, including everything from past criminal history, education, family history, and more. The predisposition writer’s job is to interview family, friends, teachers, victims, and the youth offender to compare all information and make a formal report of the events that occurred. The report will also highlight possible treatment plans, rehabilitation, restitution, or other sanctions. The goal of the predisposition writer in the juvenile justice system is to gather the best information possible through reliable interviewee’s so that the best treatment plan can be prescribed.

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1292 Words | 6 Pages

The Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention and Protection Act was established in 1974 and has since been reauthorized

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Release on recognition is to secure the pretrial release of the accused based merely on the defendant’s unsecured promise to appear at trial. This option is only open to defendants who are nonviolent offenders, has ties to the community and is not a flight risk (Fagin). “An unsecured bond releases the defendant from incarceration based on his or her signing a promissory note agreeing to pay the court an amount similar to a cash bond is he or she fails to fulfill the promise to appear at trial” (Fagin). Another option that lets a defendant be released on their own signature is called a signature bond (Fagin). A signature bond releases the defendant on his or her signature on a promise to appear in court.

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This program is to hope for the inmates to turn themselves to God, and allow them to become better human-beings when their sentence time are done. d. Drug treatment: an estimate of 1 out of 5 inmates are either doing time for using drugs or drug related case which made them enter prison in the first place. This program educates inmates about drugs and some sort of program treatment to help prevent them from coming

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Also, some critics of specialized courts are in favor of traditional adjudication and prefer to go “back to basics” even though evidence shows that specialized courts are effective in their goals in the criminal justice system. Upon an evaluation of the benefits that specialized courts has on a community by way of promoting positive change in individuals to better themselves and the community as a whole, it is recommended that the court administrator move forward with efforts to create specialized courts and support ongoing funding to sustain these types of problem solving

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