Pretrial Services Program

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

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

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