Learning Sites

Technical Assistance

From 2020 to 2024, APPR piloted a new model of technical assistance for 11 jurisdictions. Each site received up to 24 months of individual assistance and coaching from a dedicated APPR technical assistance provider. These local teams also had access to a comprehensive, team-based online platform that guided them through the pretrial improvement process. The teams interacted with each other and with other peers through the APPR Community, an online forum of people across the country who are working to improve their systems of pretrial justice.

Accomplishments

All APPR Learning Sites demonstrated a strong commitment to enhancing the fairness and efficiency of their pretrial process. Each jurisdiction:

• developed a sustainable, collaborative team dedicated to improving its pretrial system
• completed a pretrial system map
• implemented the Public Safety Assessment
• created or expanded their pretrial services organization
• developed a pretrial assessment report
• conducted stakeholder and community education
• implemented agreed-upon pretrial improvements and created a process for measuring outcomes and evaluating progress
• examined racial and ethnic disparities and engaged the community in the improvement process
• positioned themselves to continue addressing additional local pretrial improvements.

“In Youngstown, we have people who have been working in pretrial for 45 years, and no one could think back to a time when so many people from different agencies, including law enforcement, have sat down at a table to talk through issues and work on solutions together. Bridging that gap in communication has been our greatest accomplishment through the Learning Sites project.”

–David Magura, Court Administrator at Youngstown Municipal Court, Youngstown, OH

Many sites also developed pretrial decision-making tools, improved first appearance hearings, developed jail data dashboards, modified their bond schedules, and/or identified pretrial performance measures.