Prosecutor Pretrial Justice Orientation

Prosecutors are key partners in achieving pretrial justice. They are responsible for important decisions, including whether and how to charge a person, whether to refer them to a diversion program, and recommendations regarding conditions of release or petitions for detention.

This list of APPR resources is curated to help prosecutors stay current as research and practice evolve, with scholarly articles for further learning. It can orient newly hired prosecutors or assist experienced staff keep up with evidence-based practices.

You can download all the resources below and a Word document of this page by clicking the button above. Add additional resources for your local pretrial system, such as performance measures, and relevant new research as it is published.

For prosecutors, 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.

This series covers foundational legal principles and helpful checklists for prosecutors to compare against current practices.

Before requesting pretrial detention or conditions of release, prosecutors should be familiar with evidence-based practices and their impacts on court appearance and community safety.  APPR has developed summaries of the current research on some of the most common policies and practices.

A growing body of research shows that financial release conditions, often called money bond, don’t improve people’s court appearance or law-abiding behavior. Yet financial release conditions remain the default condition in most jurisdictions. Being familiar with current research is important because the stakes are high. Since financial conditions often result in detention, secured financial conditions should be considered among the more restrictive conditions and a last resort to accomplish release.

The Pretrial Glossary can help ensure that system stakeholders share a common understanding of the words and terms used. The APPR Language Guide can help prosecutors adopt person-first, strength-based language, which research shows improves people’s compliance during the pretrial phase.

NAPSA 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 with questions for additional resources or ask the APPR Community for additional resources and ideas to assist with internal education of pretrial system stakeholders.