Ready to make your pretrial system fairer, safer, and more effective? Join Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research for a 90-minute webinar on the Pathways to Pretrial Advancement Technical Assistance Opportunity—a year-long, hands-on program that helps local teams map current practices, set priorities, and build a practical plan to implement policy or practice changes. The webinar will be held on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET.
About the Webinar
This session introduces APPR’s Pathways to Pretrial Advancement Strategic Planning Technical Assistance—a 12-month, hands-on opportunity for county, municipal, or tribal partners (and relevant agencies) to examine how their pretrial system works today and to build a clear, actionable plan to improve fairness, court appearance, and public safety. The webinar is designed to help jurisdictions and pretrial stakeholders understand what the initiative offers and to decide whether it’s the right fit for their local context. For more information about this opportunity, please see the project page here.
We’ll walk through what participating sites do during the year: how teams map key decision points, compare policies and practices to evidence-based and best practices, select practical changes, and develop an implementation plan with roles, timelines, stakeholder engagement, and success measures. We’ll also preview how sites can learn evaluation concepts and explore feasibility for potential rigorous research with the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO).
During the webinar, presenters will answer your questions about:
- The strategic planning technical assistance opportunity (what it is and what you’ll receive)
- The application process (how to apply, who should be on the team, timing)
- Basic participation requirements (commitments, cadence, and expected deliverables)
You’ll leave with a clear understanding of the work, the time commitment, and how this opportunity can help your local pretrial system set priorities, strengthen coordination, and implement meaningful changes.
Projected Outcomes
Through a competitive selection process, APPR will work with up to eight (8) localities to develop strategic plans and achieve the following outcomes:
- Create a collaborative, data-driven overview of the current pretrial system that helps the team identify areas for possible improvement, such as diversion options, initial court appearances, release conditions, public safety, fairness, and support services
- Create a detailed implementation plan that outlines roles, workflows, data management, training needs, communication strategies, milestones, and performance metrics
- Receive education from LEO on evaluation concepts, explore the feasibility of evaluating the selected improvements, and design implementation in a manner that enables causal research
Webinar Presenters
Dr. Kelvin L. Banks, Associate Director, Center for Effective Public Policy
Dr. Banks has over 25 years of experience in the criminal justice system, with more than 10 years in pretrial justice. He was previously the Director of Pretrial Services in Harris County, Texas, and for the Third Judicial Circuit Court of Michigan.
Orleny Rojas, Senior Manager, Center for Effective Public Policy
Ms. Rojas supports the Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research initiative and helps expand CEPP’s portfolio of community engagement work. She has over 15 years of experience working with various criminal justice and community stakeholders to center and address the needs of vulnerable populations.
Jenna Mackey, Program Manager, Center for Effective Public Policy
Ms. Mackey specializes in the practical application of research and the implementation of evidence-based practices, and serves as a technical assistance provider, project contributor, and author for the Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research initiative. She has held positions in criminal justice at the federal, state, community, university, and nonprofit levels for over 15 years.
Registration Process
We invite all interested jurisdictions and pretrial justice stakeholders to complete the webinar registration.
Please direct any questions to Samuel Steed, Operations Assistant at the Center for Effective Public Policy, at ssteed@cepp.com.