Multnomah County was awarded $2 million from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge
(link is external) (SJC) in 2017 to implement strategies that address the main drivers of the local jail population, including unfair and ineffective practices that take a particularly heavy toll on people of color, low-income communities, and people with mental health and substance abuse issues. Since 2020, Multnomah County has been awarded an additional $3.66 million to focus on pretrial reform. As part of the SJC work, Multnomah County stakeholders asked Justice System Partners (JSP) to conduct a pretrial system assessment, which identified efficiencies in the pretrial system and created recommendations for improvements to the pretrial system in Multnomah County. In 2024, Multnomah County will begin to evaluate the pretrial changes that have been implemented since 2020, as a result of SJC funding.
Relevant and Supporting Materials
Presiding Judge Order regarding pretrial release prior to arraignment or first appearance in Multnomah County
Public Safety Assessment (PSA) presentation to the Multco Policy Team February 21, 2020 (Video)
Best Practices Library
APPR Pretrial Research Summaries