One way to handle an influx of extra inmates is to build a new jail. That’s what former NorCo Exec John Brown wanted to do. But there’s another way. It’s simply to reduce the jail population by releasing people who pose no risk to anyone. Northampton County court officials have come up with a plan to make that happen. At their March 15 meeting, Northampton County Council voted unanimously to support it by adding a new pretrial services officer

Court Administrator J. Jermaine Greene and Pretrial Services Director Nina Reynard said this new officer, who will be paid an annual $47,857 salary, will do risk assessment of criminal defendants before the Magisterial District Judge sets bail at 7 am.

Greene and Reynard explained what can happen with an example. A person with no criminal record was arrested and charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. He had a roach. He was unable to post $2,500 bail. He sat in jail for 38 days, even though the maximum sentence is just 30 days. Once Reynard and Greene discovered what had happened, this person was released immediately.

After that incident, Greene and Reynard began reviewing the bail set by Magisterial District Judges for low level offenders. At this moment, 28 people are incarcerated on minor charges like retail theft because they are unable to post monetary bail.

It costs $106 per day to house an inmate. Reynard told Council that housing these 28 low level offenders has cost the county $91,000. In nearly half of these cases, defendants are being held even though there are existing detainers, which are requests from other jurisdictions to release the person being held into their custody.

Administrator Charles Dertinger also pointed to defendants with minor crimes who are hospitalized. Once a Defendant is in the county’s custody, Medicaid is dropped and the county is liable for the entire bill. In addition, Dertinger noted that the county had to pay $7,700 in deputy sheriff over time at the hospital.

In addition to costing the county money, Greene and Reynard pointed out that pretrial detention is unfair to the defendants. Greene said they lose families, homes, jobs and get behind on child support. Reyynard added that there’s a stigma to being incarcerated.

“We need to do better,” said Greene. “Ninety percent of these people will not be returned to custody,” added Reynard. “We are pre-emptively punishing these people.”

Greene pointed out that Magisterial District judges still have judicial discretion to set bail as they see fit.”We just want to give them another tool to let them know this is a problem we’re seeing,” he explained.

Magisterial District Judges Nancy Matos Gonzalez and Robert Hawke tend to set higher bail than other jurists in Northampton County.

Greene added that this new system will mean that pretrial officers have to work weekends, and he will have to negotiate this matter with the unions.

Monetary bail will still be an option for defendants charged with more serious offenses. But interestingly, Reynard said that studies show that monetizing bail fails to make defendants more likely to appear. She said that what does work are reminders at meetings with pretrial officers.