Policy & Legislation
We’re building a fair and equitable pretrial system by writing transformative legislation and lobbying lawmakers to create lasting policy change.
Pretrial System Transformation Act
Two separate bills are needed to complete the transformation of the Pretrial System in Minnesota.
Intentional Release and Detain
The first part creates a new system of intentional release or detainment. This first creates categories of offenses where people can be cited and released (skipping any detention altogether). There is then a broad category of offenses that are detention-eligible. For a person to be detained pretrial, a prosecutor must ask for it, a judge must agree, and there must be no condition that can be set that could remedy the potential harm. The default for most people should be release, with an appropriate set of conditions. Only a small percentage of people should be held, and even then, there should be a periodic review to determine if they can be released later.
Constitutional Amendment
The second is a constitutional amendment. Minnesota’s current constitution would not allow for release with just conditions. It also requires the option to pay a cash bail to remove conditions. There is also no option to deny release completely; bail must be set in all cases. We would need to amend Minnesota’s constitution to allow for the ability for release on conditions, and in a narrow set of cases, to allow for detainment without the possibility of release with bail. Instead, a person would have periodic reviews to determine if they could be eligible for release at some point during the pretrial period.
Pretrial Services Act
This bill would create funding for a network of Pretrial Service Organizations (PSO) across the state. In Minnesota’s new Intentional Release and Detain system, when people are in the pretrial stage of their case, before they are released from custody, they are connected with a pretrial service organization that serves their region. These organizations would then provide supportive services to people during the pendency of their case.
A Blueprint for Pretrial Justice in Minnesota
In 2023, the Minnesota Legislature asked the Minnesota Justice Research Center (MNJRC) to study the pretrial system and make evidence-based recommendations to transform it. After more than a year of community engagement and research, the MNJRC published an analysis of the current system and six policy recommendations that inform our vision for pretrial justice in Minnesota.
Join Our Movement
Join our movement to build a pretrial system that better accounts for community safety, empowers survivors and victims, and gives all defendants equal access to pretrial freedom and justice.