Over the years, the population within Wisconsin’s jails has significantly increased. This population is not just those serving sentences, but rather the majority of individuals in jails are in pretrial detention, awaiting their trial. Pretrial detention has significant consequences for both the individual and the community.
However, judges receive very little guidance about what factors to consider when determining whether or not to release an individual or to impose restrictions on that release. Because of this, many individuals are being unnecessarily detained before trial. Wisconsin’s current pretrial release statute is cumbersome and confusing. It requires a judge to consider a multitude of factors without providing any guidance about how to consider those factors.
Pretrial risk assessments are tools that help judges make better decisions about who can safely be released before trial. A pretrial risk assessment considers the important factors for safe release and weighs them according to how greatly they predict a successful release. By updating Wisconsin’s pretrial release statute and requiring a pretrial risk assessment to be performed, Wisconsin can safely increase the number of individuals released before trial, increase the support to judges when making release decisions, decrease the jail population and save millions of dollars.
