Cleveland Municipal Court Pretrial Services Celebrates One Year Anniversary

Cleveland Municipal Court
216 664 6787 / 216 789 2597
ference@cmcoh.org     www.cmcoh.org

(Cleveland)- As part of a continuing effort in advancing judicial reform, on Tuesday, September 24th, the Cleveland Municipal Court highlighted the first anniversary of the start of the Pretrial Services Department the first new department at the Court in 23 years.

And it was a good one to celebrate.

With organizational help from Project Manager Aretha Johnson and the direction of Stephanie Pope-Earley, the Pretrial Services Department has been able to provide the necessary supervision and pretrial services to allow the release of over 1,000 misdemeanor defendants who may have otherwise remained incarcerated. Of that amount, 853 defendants were fitted with GPS monitoring devices.

"The success or the Pretrial Services Department has been reflected in the decreased failure to appear rates, the high compliance with court imposed conditions, and the low number of defendants who have committed some type of new criminal activity. We continue to service defendants through the use of the Public Safety Assessment tool, court supervised release, electronic monitoring, drug and alcohol testing, and community based referrals," said the Honorable Michelle D. Earley, Administrative and Presiding Judge for the Cleveland Municipal Court. 

The savings to the City because of Pretrial Services has been tremendous. A cost/benefit analysis between September 2018 and August 30. 2019 showed a savings of $4,843,915 dollars to the City of Cleveland for days that defendants may have spent in jail, but did not because they were beneficiaries of pretrial services.

 "We would Like to take this opportunity to thank the stakeholders for their support and willingness to allow us the opportunity to lead the bond reform efforts in Cuyahoga County," said Judge Earley.

 Jim Lawrence, President and CEO of Oriana House, the agency that the Court partnered with to provide the services is pleased with the speed of implementation. "And the next step is to try and expand community sanctions post sentencing by utilizing halfway houses and more GPS monitoring," he said.

The Pretrial Services department has serviced all misdemeanor and felony defendants arrested in the Jurisdiction of Cleveland Municipal Court with a Public Safety Assessment (PSA) for the purpose of assessing the defendants risk to the community. In the past year, 3,800 PSA's were completed on felony defendants and over 2,000 misdemeanors.

The Pretrial Services concept was initiated by now retired Judge Ronald B. Adrine with the launch of the PSAs in 2017. The department's mission is to ensure pretrial justice and public safety through rational pretrial decision making protocols and transition services informed by evidence based practices. Pretrial services are critical to assisting the Court in making prompt, fair, and effective release or detention decisions including, where needed, treatment possibilities and the monitoring and supervision of released defendants.