Judicial Officer Pretrial Justice Orientation
A curated list of resources for judicial officers who are new to the bench.
Introduction
Judicial officers may assume their roles without significant criminal law experience or familiarity with pretrial legal principles, policies, or practices. Even former prosecutors or defense counsel may have received little training about pretrial research and evidence-based practices despite having made or argued against countless bond recommendations.
This curated list of APPR resources can serve as an orientation to pretrial justice for judicial officers who are new to the bench.
You can download all the resources below and a Word document of this page by clicking the red button above. Add additional resources for your local pretrial system, such as pretrial performance measures, and relevant new pretrial research as it is published.
APPR Roadmap for Pretrial Advancement
For judicial officers, reading this document might help provide context to parts of your pretrial system you may not have considered before, and suggest areas for deeper learning and exploration.
Key links
- APPR Roadmap for Pretrial Advancement (PDF) External Link
Bipartisan Bail Reform: Three Pillars of Pretrial Justice references various histories written based on secondary sources (see pages 140-163). Bail at the Founding and The Reconstruction of American Bail were published by historians using primary sources.
Pretrial Legal Foundations
This series of short handouts go to the core of judicial decision making and provide helpful checklists for judicial officers to compare against current practices.
Key links
- Pretrial Release & Detention: Legal Principles (PDF) External Link
- Meaningful First Appearance Overview (PDF) External Link
- What Is a Pretrial Detention Hearing? (PDF) External Link
Fundamentals of Bail is the first articulation of the six areas of education necessary to inform virtually anything related to the pretrial phase of a criminal case. The areas are, Why we need pretrial justice, the history of bail, the legal foundations of bail, the pretrial research, the national standards, and terms and phrases used at bail.
Most recently, those six areas were confirmed, updated, and republished in Bipartisan Bail Reform: Three Pillars of Pretrial Justice. This new resource can be used both as a standalone treatise or as a reference source, providing footnoted citations to the most recent and important pretrial documents.
Fundamentals of Bail provided the first complete list of pretrial legal foundations and their relevance to bail (pretrial release) and “no bail” (pretrial detention) in this era of improvement. Bipartisan Bail Reform (pages 135-136, 163-194) analyzes the significant changes to the law since the publication of Fundamentals and articulates those updates.
The Present Crisis in American Bail takes a deeper look into the legal principles of due process and equal protection.
Pretrial Research Summaries
Before ordering conditions of pretrial release, judicial officers should be familiar with evidence-based practices that help people attend court and remain arrest-free, and set appropriate conditions based on the individual’s likelihood of success. APPR has developed summaries of the current research on some of the most commonly used pretrial release conditions.
Key links
- Financial Conditions of Release (PDF) External Link
- Pretrial Detention (PDF) External Link
- Pretrial Drug Testing (PDF) External Link
- Pretrial Location Monitoring (PDF) External Link
- Pretrial Monitoring (PDF) External Link
Pages 226-235 of Bipartisan Bail Reform: Three Pillars of Pretrial Justice contains a comprehensive review of the history of traditional conditions of release (and detention) as well as the most current research
Pretrial Language Resources
The APPR Language Guide can help judicial officers adopt person-first, strength-based language, which research shows improves people’s compliance during the pretrial phase. The Pretrial Glossary can help ensure that system stakeholders share a common understanding of the words and terms used.
Key links
- APPR Language Guide (PDF) External Link
- Pretrial Glossary (PDF) External Link
Professional Standards
National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies Pretrial Standards Revised 2024
The National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies has issued professional standards for the pretrial release and diversion fields since 1978.
Contact APPR
Contact APPR for help finding additional resources or ask the APPR Community for ideas to assist with internal education of pretrial system stakeholders.
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