Pretrial Program

Start Date: 
2020
Description: 
The Evidence-Based Decision Making Initiative emphasizes a system-wide planning process and approach to criminal justice system programming. Eau Claire County has been engaged with the Evidence-Based Decision Making Initiative since 2010 at the local level and since 2020 at the State level. The goal of the Initiative is to build a system-wide framework (arrest through final disposition and discharge) that will result in more collaborative, evidence-based decision-making and practices in local criminal justice systems. CJCC and EBDM team members in Eau Claire County firmly believe that implementation of this program will greatly benefit Eau Claire County citizens by reducing the length of time a person will sit in custody pretrial, determining appropriateness for diversion level services, and ensuring persons are notified of upcoming court cases which will reduce the level of system involvement for our clients. In 2020, Eau Claire County launched the use of The Public Safety Assessment (PSA). The PSA is an algorithmic pretrial risk assessment that judges can use when determining release conditions and the need for monitoring once released from custody. The need for pretrial monitoring has been vetted through our CJCC and EBDM policy teams. In 2015, we identified, through our systems mapping, the expanded need for pretrial monitoring. It wasn’t until the State EBDM team took on pretrial as a charge and approved DOJ funding to support local implementation sites. Through this funding, we were able to implement a formal use of pretrial monitoring. The PSA uses administrative data to produce two risk scores about a defendant: one predicting the likelihood that the individual will commit a new crime if released pending trial, and another predicting the likelihood that they will fail to return for a future court hearing. Scores fall on a scale of one (1) to four (4) with higher scores indicating a greater level of risk. The completion of the PSA and monitoring of these four levels is supported by the DOJ pretrial requested funding.
Risk Level: 
All risk levels
Risk Assessment Tools: 
PSA Public Safety Assessment
Admission(s): 
Pre-plea
Contact: 
Name: 
Tiana Glenna
Job Title: 
Criminal Justice Services Director
Phone: 
(715) 839-1249
Address: 
Eau Claire County
721 Oxford Ave
Suite 2330
Eau Claire, WI 54703
Alternative to Revocation Admission: 
No
Medication Assisted Treatment: 
No