The Conference of Chief Justices,
made up of the highest judicial officers in the
fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the various United States
territories, has officially endorsed bail reform and pretrial justice in
America. Specifically, it “commends and endorses” the Conference of State Court
Administrators’ policy paper on pretrial release, and it joins with that group “to
urge that court leaders promote, collaborate, and accomplish the adoption of
evidence-based assessment of risk in setting pretrial release conditions and
advocate for the presumptive use of non-financial release conditions to the
greatest degree consistent with evidence-based assessment of flight risk and
threat to public safety and to victims of crimes.”
The Conference of Chief Justices is a pretty important
group, and its policy is clearly at odds with that of the commercial surety
industry, which advocates for presumptive release on financial conditions. This new policy was a catalyst for Judge Lippman's call for an examination and overhaul of New York’s bail laws, and it will
undoubtedly nudge judicial officials in other states to do the same.
You can read the resolutions
here:
