Bartholomew County will be part of a pilot program to help keep people out of jail just because they can’t afford to bail themselves out. The Indiana Lawyer magazine is reporting that the program will use a risk-assessment tool to determine which arrestees actually are at risk of trying to flee from their charges and which can be let loose on their own recognizance until trial.
The program is part of an initiative from the Indiana Supreme Court to study evidence based pretrial release, according to the Indiana Lawyer.
Judges who are involved in the pilot program say that national studies show that there is no ties between bond amounts and the likelihood of people showing up for their court date.
Bartholomew County will be one of nine counties involved in the effort, the magazine reports, including Allen, Hamilton, Hendricks, Jefferson, Monroe, St. Joseph, Starke and Tipton counties. Counties are still waiting to find out what information they will need to collect and how to apply that information, the magazine reports.