Lessons from the Field: Reducing Burdensome Requirements for Pretrial Clients in Harris County, TX

Similar to many pretrial agencies during the pandemic, Harris County Pretrial Services faced tremendous challenges in 2020: caseloads had risen by 770% since 2017, stretching its workforce thin. At the same time, courts routinely placed stringent supervision requirements, like weekly drug tests and ankle monitors, on individuals awaiting trial—without systematic criteria or processes for reviewing their necessity. Superfluous pretrial supervision requirements put a strain on pretrial services agencies’ capacity, increase the cost of releasing people on bail, and cost the affected individual unnecessary money and time through, for example, missed work, childcare, and transportation. Judges in Harris County (which includes Houston, TX) wanted to reduce excessive pretrial requirements but lacked the up-to-date, accurate data and tools necessary to do so effectively.

With the Government Performance Lab’s technical assistance, Harris County Pretrial Services implemented a pilot program to automatically track client compliance with pretrial conditions, such as drug testing, check-ins with pretrial officers, and electronic monitoring. The program provided real-time data and behavioral nudges to aid judges to make evidence-based decisions concerning pretrial supervision requirements. During the two-year pilot period, Harris County reduced burdensome requirements for over 2,200 clients awaiting trial. There were no changes in client compliance or rearrest rates during this time.

Our new project feature details the pilot’s three-step implementation process. It contains actionable insights for any court or pretrial agency looking to better manage caseloads, reduce use of pretrial conditions, and better support client success, with particular relevance to judges, leaders of pretrial agencies, and technical assistance providers.

“This pilot demonstrated that people who had a step-down remained arrest-free at the same rate as the general pretrial population. We now want to expand on this pilot to support judicial decision-making to reduce unnecessary use of conditions placed on people earlier in the process.”

Natalie Michailides
Director of Harris County Pretrial Services  

The GPL has heard from governments across the country that they struggle to manage large caseloads while monitoring resource-intensive pretrial conditions. These challenges are exacerbated when judges automatically place more people released from jail onto pretrial supervision and pandemic-related court backlogs cause longer case disposition times. This dynamic strains limited supervision staff resources and subjects clients to intensive monitoring for months on end.

Harris County Pretrial Services increased judges’ confidence in issuing step-downs (reducing the intensity of supervision requirements). The GPL worked with agency staff and judges to develop a system that automatically identifies clients eligible for step-downs—rather than pretrial officers having to sift through thousands of case notes. Judges then have an opportunity to review the list of eligible clients and deny any step-downs. This new system rewarded clients who complied with their supervision requirements by lowering the intensity of their conditions—while preserving judicial discretion over each case. This process and the resulting reductions in pretrial conditions yielded lower caseloads for staff, increased engagement from judges to issue step-downs, and less burdensome conditions for clients demonstrating compliance.

“One of the biggest challenges we face is that my staff are overwhelmed with high caseloads that have many clients with resource-intensive conditions that last a long time. The pilot provided a better way to manage their caseloads. The new compliance case note system, initiated by the pilot, helped staff quickly track client progress and work with judges to adjust conditions, allowing my staff to focus on their highest-risk cases.”

Janey Smith
Court Support and Enhanced Supervision Division Supervisor at Harris County Pretrial Services