Public Performance Partners

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Criminal Justice Projects

Franklin County Ohio Bail Practices Review Released by County, P3

Click Image to Read the Full Report

Public Performance Partners, Inc. (P3) was retained by the Franklin County Criminal Justice Planning Board (FCCJPB) to help county leaders understand bail practices currently in place across the county – especially in the Franklin County Municipal Court (FCMC), the effect of these practices on the Franklin County Corrections Centers (FCCC) and outcomes related to failure to appear (FTA) and new criminal activity while on bail, and recommendations to improve pretrial outcomes in Franklin County.

To accomplish this deliverable, P3 collected data from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) and the Franklin County Municipal Clerk of Courts (FCMCoC), conducted secondary and primary research on the latest best practices across Ohio and the country to improve pretrial outcomes, and conducted dozens of interviews and meetings with criminal justice leadership in Franklin County and the City of Columbus, including fourteen municipal judges, three common pleas judges and one magistrate, four pretrial services leaders/managers/supervisors, four officials from the City of Columbus Prosecutor’s Office and Franklin County Public Defender, and three officials from FCSO.

Key Recommendations

Franklin County can learn from the best practices laid out in our report, from other jurisdictions in Ohio and across the country to improve pretrial outcomes by:

  1. Replacing the 15 municipal judge arraignment rotation with a team of dedicated magistrates responsible for carrying out FCMC’s pretrial policy.

  2. Providing more information to these magistrates (or judges) at arraignment.

  3. Assessing the risk of non-violent felony defendants prior to arraignment in FCMC.

  4. Screening 100% of predisposition misdemeanor bookings.

  5. Incorporating pre-arraignment risk screening into the booking process.

  6. Bringing FCMC and FCCPC judges and magistrates together in dialog around bail best practices.

  7. Expanding investment in efforts to reduce failure to appear in the FCMC.

Click here to read a white paper outlining findings and recommendations from the final report.

A Project to Reform the Bail System in Montgomery County

In the fall of 2017, Public Performance Partners was hired by the Montgomery County Commissioners to provide the research and support services for their project to reform the system of bail in the county. P3 CEO Hugh Quill, former Montgomery County Treasurer and P3’s Jim Knight, a former probation officer, member of the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s staff, and former Chief Deputy of the Montgomery County Clerk of Courts office, will be the lead support staff for P3.

In an announcement of the project, Montgomery County Commissioner Dan Foley outlined several goals for the project:

Our court systems in Montgomery County-both Common Pleas and the various Municipal Courts-have a history of innovation. Our job is to try to develop a model that we can present to judges in our county that would result in:

  • A safe community
  • Greater liberty for those who should not be in the jail but for ability to pay
  • More beds in the jail for those who need to be separated from the community
  • Reduced rates for failure to appear

Bail reform is being studied and implemented nationwide. According to a report published in June 2017 by the Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission, it’s estimated that 34 percent of people in Ohio jails are there awaiting there awaiting trial because they cannot afford bail.

“Bail is intended to make sure people show up to their court dates and to keep the community safe,” Foley said. But many have raised concerns that the current system too often results in non-violent poor people staying in jails for longer periods of time than those who can financially afford to gain their release.”

Bail Reform Project Documents & Resources

As part of our work, P3 will provide links below to documents and other resources throughout the project.

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