Pierce County, Washington

Values

• Equity
• Social justice
• Transparency
• Opportunity for community-based interventions
• Person-focused instead of resource-focused

A Foundation for Change

APPR built on Pierce County’s history of collaboration by forming a policy team of members with diverse experiences, expertise, and perspectives. Since the team’s kickoff in 2019, members have remained actively engaged, with many participating in several workgroups focused on specific pretrial policies and practices.

Validating and Implementing the PSA

RTI International, APPR’s national research partner, conducted a historical validation and bias testing on the county’s population. The results showed that the assessment made accurate predictions and did not indicate racial bias. This gave system stakeholders confidence that the PSA would be a valuable tool to inform pretrial decision making.

Pierce County successfully launched the PSA in September 2022. Since implementation, the two court commissioners presiding over the county’s arraignments have indicated that they believe the information in the PSA assessment helps them make well-informed decisions about pretrial release as they weigh recommendations from the defense and prosecution, which are often vastly different.

Meaningful Arraignment Hearings

Pierce County made several improvements to arraignment hearings to better align with foundational legal principles and best practices. A workgroup identified, prioritized, and implemented several changes, including:

• Improving public defenders’ and judicial officers’ access to Pretrial Services reports before arraignment
• Providing public defenders access to prosecutors’ morning email to identify people who will have no charges filed, so they can focus resources on those who will be arraigned
• Updating language on court forms to clarify when people are required to attend certain hearings
• Adding a flag in the court’s case management system to indicate when a person is on pretrial status, allowing system stakeholders to review pretrial outcomes

Building Data Sustainability

Pierce County has made significant progress toward data management and reporting. Its IT department integrated a county jail data dashboard created by RTI into its technical infrastructure, assuming control of the dashboard in September 2023. The IT department also established data-sharing agreements to grant it access to pretrial data stored in the county’s electronic case management system. Finally, the policy team identified pretrial performance measures to analyze system outcomes. One obstacle to robust evaluation of pretrial outcomes remains, however. The pretrial case management software, purchased from an outside vendor, does not allow data to be extracted. An internal research and data analytics team is working to find a solution to this barrier.

Responding to Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence

The county established a workgroup to explore how to implement two laws regarding domestic violence and intimate partner violence: the Tiffany Hill Act and HB 1715. In addition to pretrial system stakeholders, this workgroup includes a local shelter for survivors, an independent social worker, and an advocate for survivors. Superior Court Judge André M. Peñalver and the Haywood Burns Institute (BI), APPR’s racial equity partner, facilitated conversations between community-based and court-based advocates for survivors. They addressed issues related to location monitoring, including the fees that can create unintended hardships for survivors and families. The workgroup is in the process of preparing protocols and planning for implementation.

Policy Team

• Beacon Health Options
• Criminal Justice Training Commission
• Korematsu Center for Law and Equality Seattle University Law School
• Our Sister’s House
• Pierce County Communications Department
• Pierce County Council
• Pierce County Department of Assigned Counsel
• Pierce County Executive
• Pierce County Jail
• Pierce County Pretrial Services (lead agency)
• Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office
• Pierce County Sheriff’s Department
• Pierce County Superior Court
• Pierce County Superior Court Clerk’s Office
• Independent Forensic Social Work Specialist
• Washington State Center for Court Research