Building a Responsive Pretrial Supervision System in Harris County, TX

Project Context: 

• In 2018, Harris County Pretrial Services (HCPS) began enacting misdemeanor bail reform changes that increased the share of defendants released pretrial on unsecured bonds. Between 2017 and 2020, the number of individuals on pretrial supervision in Harris County increased by 770% (from ~3,750 to ~32,500). 
• This increase in the pretrial population meant client-to-staff caseload ratios exceeded 200:1 and supervision conditions became more intensive than the agency could effectively manage, with staff and pretrial clients bearing the brunt of the consequences. 
• Judges are responsible for setting a client’s conditions of release, yet lacked data on the total number of individuals on pretrial supervision or assigned to conditions in their courtroom. Judges wanted to address the strain of the supervision requirements on the agency and clients, but did not feel they had the tools necessary to effectively right-size their use of conditions. 

How the GPL Supported: 

• In 2020, the GPL helped HCPS pilot a new model of pretrial supervision aimed at reducing the use of costly and unnecessary pretrial supervision requirements. The pilot tested a set of behavioral “nudges” by frequently providing judges and HCPS staff with client compliance data and information about how their pretrial supervision decisions compared to peer judges. This enabled them to monitor and adjust the intensity of these pretrial requirements throughout a client’s supervision period. Specific areas of support included:
  • Established eligibility criteria for condition adjustments/step-downs:  First, the GPL, HCPS leadership, and an initial set of six criminal court judges worked to establish data-driven criteria for determining which clients would be eligible for a “step-down” in the intensity of their pretrial requirements.  
    • These step-down criteria provided pretrial stakeholders with standardized guidance for assessing how well a client was doing at an early stage in the supervision period. Then, on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, the GPL tracked and elevated information to judges about client compliance with pretrial supervision conditions. 
  • Developed a standardized system for tracking client compliance in real-time: The GPL designed a new standardized case note process that allowed staff to enter a quick, standardized code (i.e., “C” for compliant and “NC” for non-compliant) at the start of their case notes that allowed for easier identification of compliant clients as compared to reading through lengthy narrative case notes. GPL staff also created and delivered an interactive training for 112 pretrial officers and 10 supervisors across the agency on how to use this new compliance tracking system. The system aimed to make it simpler to flag clients consistently meeting their reporting requirements without creating additional strain on staff resources. 
  • Equipped judges with more representative data on client compliance: The GPL created pilot data dashboards to track rates of compliance and rearrest for clients in pilot and non-pilot courtrooms. Then, the GPL facilitated quarterly conversations with judges focused on specific measures they had agreed to make progress on, such as lowering the percentage of clients in their courtroom on certain supervision conditions. During these conversations, the GPL showed judges graphs of progress on key metrics disaggregated by courtroom and discussed specific next steps to increase impact. 

Results:

• Stepped down supervision conditions for 2,200 pretrial supervision clients with no changes in client compliance or rearrest rates during that time: Judges, the GPL, and HCPS staff worked together to look for ways to reduce unnecessary supervision conditions, resulting in a total of 2,546 supervision condition adjustments that benefited 2,211 clients between October 2020 and June 2022. This lowered the costs and harms associated with in-person check-ins, drug tests, and constant electronic monitoring, with no corresponding changes in client compliance rates or re-arrest rates. Pretrial clients said that the shifts in requirements reduced or eliminated the number of times they had to leave work, find childcare or transportation resources, and travel across the county for in-person supervision meetings. 
• Reduced the administrative burden on pretrial supervision staff: As a result of the pilot, HCPS staff had fewer clients on their caseload with the highest intensity conditions, freeing up agency resources to focus on higher priority cases and creating increased capacity to implement additional innovative strategies.