Skip to content

OUR WORK

Pathways to Pretrial Advancement

Municipal, county, and tribal jurisdictions are invited to apply for an innovative 12-month strategic planning process to evaluate their current system and create an actionable plan to improve pretrial outcomes and enhance community safety and well-being.

Pathways RFA About APPR
A group of people sitting in a conference room listening to a women standing at the front of the room.

Localities selected through a competitive process will collaborate with experienced pretrial experts as part of a formal strategic planning process to: 

  1. Identify critical decision points and assess policies and practices based on data, evidence, and best practices.
  2. Select practical changes that enhance fairness, public safety, and effectiveness.
  3. Develop an implementation plan that outlines roles, timelines, stakeholder engagement, and success metrics.
  4. Assess readiness for potential rigorous research by learning evaluation concepts and exploring the feasibility of research, with support from the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO).

This opportunity helps localities bring stakeholders together, prioritize the most promising improvements, and promote effective pretrial policies and practices. APPR will provide professional facilitation, expert coaching, immersive learning experiences, and peer support.

Join Us December 2

We’re hosting an informational webinar on Tuesday, December 2, from 1 to 2:30 pm ET to answer questions and walk through what sites will do during the 12-month planning process. We’ll explain how sites will learn evaluation concepts, discuss process and participation requirements, and respond to application questions.

Register Now

RFA & Application

Eight localities will be selected through a competitive process. Each site must form a collaborative, multidisciplinary team led by a designated Team Lead and a Project Champion. Applications are due by Friday, December 19, 2025. Download the RFA and fillable application below.

Pathways RFA Pathways Application

Informational Webinar: Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Application Deadline: December 19, 2025

Selection Announcement: January 20, 2026

Project Duration: February 2026 – January 2027

Read the project description for a detailed explanation of the required activities, eligibility, and expected activities over the 12-month strategic planning period.

Download the RFA

Detailed instructions and how to submit the application via email are in the fillable PDF application. Applications should include brief letters of support from each stakeholder involved or a single unified letter signed by all stakeholders.

Download the Application

Contact

For more information about Pathways to Pretrial Advancement, including the application process or key dates, please contact Dr. Kelvin L. Banks at KBanks@cepp.com and Orleny Rojas at ORojas@cepp.com.

About APPR & LEO

APPR

Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research (APPR) is a collaborative, multi-year project that promotes and facilitates advancements in pretrial justice. By supporting and engaging pretrial professionals and community members in the meaningful delivery of data-informed pretrial justice, APPR seeks to achieve fair, safe, and equitable pretrial practices that positively impact people, systems, and communities. APPR is supported by Arnold Ventures and managed by the Center for Effective Public Policy.

LEO

The Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) at the University of Notre Dame is a research center that partners with governments and nonprofits to rigorously evaluate programs that help people move out of poverty. LEO co-designs causal studies with service providers, uses administrative data to measure real-world outcomes, and helps scale approaches that prove effective. Causal research designs can reliably and validly isolate the treatment effect of a policy, practice, or intervention. Examples of such research designs include difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, instrumental variable, and randomization.