Research-Action Sites

Policy and Practice-Advancing Goals

APPR is working with six RAS over a period of five years to:

• Help communities build a foundation for sustainable policy change
• Support high-fidelity implementation of pretrial improvements
• Where desired and appropriate, validate the Public Safety Assessment (PSA), determine if improvements are possible, and monitor the impacts and outcomes associated with its use
• Build ongoing capacity to use research, data, and collaborative processes to advance pretrial justice practices

Participating sites include:

• Fulton County, Georgia
• Montgomery County, Alabama
• Pierce County, Washington
• Pulaski County, Arkansas
• Ramsey County, Minnesota
• Thurston County, Washington

APPR is working with RAS policy teams, their agency staff, and government and community partners in three phases: readiness, planning, and implementation and continuous improvement.

Participating sites receive intensive technical assistance, ongoing data support, and rigorous evaluation to identify effective, research-based pretrial practices that can serve as a model for communities nationwide.

Essential Elements to Improvement

APPR’s RAS work is grounded in five essential elements of effective, sustainable pretrial justice. These include:

1. Establishing high-functioning collaborative teams that represent community and system stakeholders, who together agree on a vision for their system of pretrial justice and meaningfully engage with their colleagues, partners, and neighbors in the process of change
2. Ensuring understanding of pretrial research and its implications for policy and practice, objectively assessing local practices against empirical research, and continuously building pretrial competence
3. Engaging in local, policy-advancing research and evaluation
4. Examining racial, ethnic, gender, and wealth disparities and improving policies and practices to address them
5. Developing and carrying out proactive and responsive communications, seeking transparency, shared understanding, and deep and wide engagement around pretrial issues among members of the government and the broader community

Complexity

While critical to sustainable and lasting culture change, these essential elements present challenges. Justice system stakeholders—law enforcement, jail administrators, prosecutors, defense counsel, judicial officers, and others—have historically worked independently to achieve community safety and well-being through their own, singular efforts and through different approaches. In principle, the distinct roles of these stakeholders provide a fair and balanced system. In practice, those seeking the same ends often view themselves as at odds with one another and working toward different ends. 

Deepening the complexity, justice system stakeholders often perceive themselves as duly selected to define and uphold justice on behalf of the community. Historically, the system has not been structured to engage community members and hear their perceptions about safety or to allow their input on policies. APPR’s technical assistance facilitates the development of high-functioning policy teams, creating a table large enough for system stakeholders and community members to work together meaningfully and collaboratively.

Research and Practice Opportunity

In tandem with the technical assistance, APPR is studying the local context of pretrial processes and decision making, the implementation of pretrial improvements, and PSA performance in jurisdictions that choose to use it. Research processes and findings are shared directly with RAS policy teams and made publicly available.

Promise in National Pretrial Practice

Through deep engagement in research and policy analysis, APPR seeks to establish new norms around pretrial policy and decision making. The work in these localities will further shape our understanding of and the national discourse about the issues, challenges, and solutions to creating fair, just, effective pretrial practices for everyone.