The Honorable Ronald B. Adrine, Cleveland Municipal Court's Administrative and Presiding Judge, recently attended a fact-finding visit to Washington D.C.’s Pre-Trial Services Agency.

“In the District of Columbia, 85% of all the people arrested are released on personal bond, regardless of the charge.  Of those released, 90% return to court as required, and without having committed any new criminal offense.  The remaining 15% of those arrested are deemed too risky to release under any condition. In DC they don’t use monetary bonds at all, except for fugitives. Their process, which has continued for a generation, clearly demonstrates there is no correlation between a person’s ability to post money and the probability that they’ll return to court or their propensity to commit other offenses if released,” said Judge Adrine.

According to the judge, there are three components to make this work—first, a stringent risk assessment protocol that will allow a judicial officer a high level of confidence in the predictability of a defendant’s risk.  Second, a robust pre-trial services agency in Cuyahoga County that would adequately monitor people who are released.  Lastly, the determination that we can reduce our level of pre-trial detention significantly enough to pay for the first two.

“My goal is to see which components of DC's process may be replicable here in Cleveland.  I am excited and anxious to go forward on this.” he said.

Under Judge Adrine’s leadership, the court has created or continued a number of programs that offer solutions to many of the tougher problems it faces. Four of those programs, the Greater Cleveland Drug Court; the Veterans Treatment Docket; the Mental Health Docket and the Human Trafficking Docket are now certified as specialized dockets by the Supreme Court of Ohio.

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Contact:  Ed Ferenc, Public Information Officer                                   
Cleveland Municipal Court
216 664 6787 / 216 789 2597
ference@cmcoh.org     www.cmcoh.org