Bail Reform: Avoiding Detention in County Jail (Part 2)

“Charging by complaint-summons rather than by complaint-warrant generally would be appropriate when the facts known at the time of the charging decision reliably indicate that the defendant requires no monitoring or only minimal monitoring upon release. A complaint-warrant, in contrast, generally should be sought when the defendant poses a moderate or high risk of flight, new criminal activity or violence, or threat to the criminal justice process that should be managed by monitored release conditions, if not by the defendant’s pretrial detention.

Furthermore, a complaint-warrant should be sought in domestic violence cases where imposition of a no-contact or other restraint is reasonably necessary to assure the immediate protection of the victim. See subsection 4.6.3. Note, moreover, that issuance of a complaint-warrant would preserve the option of applying for pretrial detention, or revocation of release if defendant were to violate a release condition, and/or to seek electronic monitoring (an ankle bracelet) by the pretrial services program as a release condition. See Section 4.6.”

This is another example of the Bail Reform Law that is supposed to avoid the detention of petty offenders making it possible to detain individuals for days when they would presently be permitted to post little to no bail to secure their release. A case in point is a domestic violence where the most serious offense is most often a disorderly persons simple assault. Presently there is a presumption against requiring anything more than a $2,500 bail, a figure that most people could easily post without being lodged in the county jail. Under the new law the presumption is turned on its head in these cases where the accused will now routinely be held in the county jail for several days before it is possible to be released. Note that the phrase “is reasonably necessary to assure the immediate protection of the victim” will, in theory, always apply, since the act of charging a domestic partner with a criminal offense will always make it reasonable to be concerned for the alleged victim’s safety.