Community First Pretrial Reform and Jail Decarceration Act
Bill: H.R.5034 | Sponsor: Rep. Trone, David J. (D-MD)
Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement

Summary:
Community First Pretrial Reform and Jail Decarceration Act
This bill requires the Bureau of Justice Assistance within the Department of Justice to award grants to partnerships of tribal, territorial, and local governments and nonprofit organizations to reduce the number of individuals in local jails and the duration of their incarceration.

To establish a new Justice Department grant program to reduce the 
number of individuals incarcerated in local jails, reduce the number of 
     days individuals are incarcerated in local jails, and support 
               community-led local justice reinvestment.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Community First Pretrial Reform and 
Jail Decarceration Act''.

SEC. 2. GRANTS AUTHORIZED.

    (a) Grants Authorized.--The Attorney General, acting through the 
Bureau of Justice Assistance, shall make grants to eligible 
partnerships for purposes of reducing the number of individuals in 
jails operated by units of local government and the number of days such 
individuals spend in jail as follows:
            (1) Grants for analysis and planning, which shall be used 
        to--
                    (A) collect and analyze local criminal justice and 
                incarceration data, including data on racial and ethnic 
                disparities; and
                    (B) develop a strategic, collaborative plan to 
                decrease local jail incarceration that shall be public 
                facing.
            (2) Grants for implementation of the plan described in 
        paragraph (1)(B) and which may be used for activities to reduce 
        the number of individuals incarcerated in local jails and to 
        reduce the number of days that individuals are so incarcerated 
        including--
                    (A) eliminating or reducing the use of cash bail;
                    (B) reducing revocations of conditional release;
                    (C) creating or increasing the availability of 
                pretrial services, including efforts undertaken in 
                collaboration with community-based organizations and 
                nonprofits;
                    (D) investing in case processing and processes to 
                reduce overall time to disposition and time between 
                court events;
                    (E) ensuring early assignment of counsel and 
                presence of counsel at individuals' first court 
                appearance or bail hearing;
                    (F) providing training to various actors within the 
                criminal justice system on indigent defense that is 
                aligned with best practices in the field;
                    (G) creating or expanding diversion programs that 
                do not require an individual to enter into a guilty 
                plea and do not use incarceration as a sanction for 
                noncompliance--
                            (i) at the pre-arrest phase;
                            (ii) at the pre-booking phase; and
                            (iii) at the post-booking phase; or
                    (H) any other emerging, promising, or evidence-
                based practices that an eligible partnership proposes 
                and the Attorney General deems likely to reduce local 
                jail incarceration.
    (b) Eligible Partnership.--An eligible partnership is a partnership 
between not less than two of the following:
            (1) A unit of local government.
            (2) A territory.
            (3) An Indian tribe.
            (4) A nonprofit organization.
    (c) Application.--An application for a grant shall include the 
following:
            (1) Details of the range of pretrial services available 
        within the jurisdiction where the jail being targeted for 
        incarceration rate reduction under this Act is located.
            (2) A plan to ensure that individuals in pretrial contact 
        with the justice system will be subject to the least 
        restrictive conditions or combination of conditions necessary 
        to reasonably address the imminent risk of willful flight or 
        the risk of imminent threat of serious physical harm to a 
        reasonably identifiable person.
            (3) A plan for ongoing process evaluation and outcome 
        evaluation.
            (4) Either--
                    (A) data--
                            (i) disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and 
                        gender on incarceration for correctional 
                        facilities within the local jurisdiction for 
                        each of the last five calendar years that 
                        includes--
                                    (I) the average daily population;
                                    (II) the percentage of individuals 
                                held pretrial and post-conviction; and
                                    (III) the average length of stay 
                                for individuals held pretrial and post-
                                conviction; and
                            (ii) disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and 
                        gender on arrests made by all law enforcement 
                        entities operating within the local 
                        jurisdiction over each of the last five 
                        calendar years; or
                    (B) in the event that elements of such 
                incarceration or arrest data are not able to be 
                compiled and reported, a comprehensive plan to obtain 
                as much of the unavailable data as possible within the 
                first year of the award.

SEC. 3. REQUIREMENTS.

    (a) In General.--Grantees shall--
            (1) consult in all phases of planning, implementation, and 
        evaluation with municipal, county, and State law enforcement 
        agencies, courts in the local jurisdiction, public defense 
        organizations and criminal defense practitioners in the local 
        jurisdiction, local substance use and mental health 
        authorities, local community members, local community members 
        who have been justice-involved, and community-based 
        organizations and service providers;
            (2) analyze local jail incarceration and arrest data to 
        identify the drivers of jail incarceration and racial and 
        ethnic disparities and ground jail population reduction 
        strategies in that data;
            (3) reduce incarceration rates by no less than 5 percent 
        the first year of an implementation grant, 10 percent in each 
        subsequent year, and 50 percent by the end of the grant period;
            (4) in consultation with the Bureau of Justice Assistance--
                    (A) adopt and implement a methodology for measuring 
                racial and ethnic disparities in jail incarceration;
                    (B) set goals for the reduction of racial and 
                ethnic jail incarceration disparities; and
                    (C) decrease levels of incarceration across all 
                races and ethnicities;
            (5) engage an external evaluator to coordinate data 
        collection and reporting in an ongoing fashion and perform both 
        a process and outcome evaluation, with support from the Bureau 
        of Justice Assistance; and
            (6) use financial savings created through decreased 
        incarceration to sustain programmatic and community-based 
        efforts to reduce jail incarceration.
    (b) Grant Oversight Requirement.--
            (1) In general.--If a grantee fails to meet the 
        incarceration rate and racial and ethnic disparities reduction 
        requirements under subsection (a)(3) in any year of the award, 
        the Bureau of Justice Assistance shall perform an audit of the 
        use of their award and the grantee shall implement new 
        strategies based on that audit. If a grantee fails to meet the 
        incarceration rate and racial and ethnic disparities reduction 
        requirements under subsection (a)(3) in any two consecutive 
        years of the award, the Attorney General shall terminate the 
        award.
            (2) Modification authority.--The Bureau of Justice 
        Assistance may grant a modification to the incarceration rate 
        reduction requirement under subsection (a)(3) if the Bureau 
        determines after an audit that the failure to meet the 
        incarceration rate reduction requirement was caused by an 
        increase in population in the covered jurisdiction. If a 
        grantee fails to meet the modified reduction requirements in 
        any two subsequent years of the award, the Attorney General 
        shall terminate the award.

SEC. 4. GRANT AMOUNTS.

    (a) Planning Grants.--A grant under section 2(a)(1) may be for not 
more than $100,000 for a single grantee, and shall be for a term of 1 
year.
    (b) Implementation Grants.--A grant under section 2(a)(2) shall be 
for a term of 6 years, and shall be structured as follows:
            (1) For the first year of the grant term, an amount shall 
        be disbursed that is to be not less than $500,000 and not more 
        than $3,000,000, contingent upon acceptance of a grantee's 
        proposed budget for activities under the grant, which may be 
        subject to revision during the award process.
            (2) Award amounts shall decrease annually by--
                    (A) 10 percent in the second year;
                    (B) 15 percent in the third year;
                    (C) 20 percent in the fourth year; and
                    (D) 25 percent in the fifth year.
            (3) Award amounts during the sixth year of the award may 
        not be used for programmatic activities and shall support only 
        program evaluation and the drafting of a final report, and such 
        funds shall be available to the grantees until expended.

SEC. 5. SELECTION PRIORITY.

    In selecting grantees, the Attorney General shall--
            (1) give priority to applicants from jurisdictions with the 
        highest incarceration rates that are not already in decline and 
        whose applications contain the most ambitious and attainable 
        plans for reducing that rate;
            (2) give additional priority to applicants from 
        jurisdictions seeking to use funds under this Act to prevent 
        the local government from expanding the number of beds in local 
        correctional facilities;
            (3) for any year in which there will only be one new or 
        ongoing award, ensure that a small metropolitan, micropolitan, 
        or noncore area is the recipient of the award;
            (4) for any year in which there will be more than one new 
        or ongoing award, ensure that small metropolitan, micropolitan, 
        or noncore areas are the recipients of at least two awards; and
            (5) for any year in which there will be three or more new 
        or ongoing awards, ensure that no more than one large central 
        metropolitan area is a recipient of an award.

SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) The term ``conditional release'' means probation, 
        parole, supervised release, home confinement, community 
        supervision, and other practices under which an individual is 
        supervised in the community by the criminal justice system and 
        may be incarcerated if found in violation of the conditions of 
        their release.
            (2) The term ``diversion'' means a program or practice 
        that--
                    (A) places individuals who come into contact with 
                the criminal justice system into alternative processes 
                outside the standard scope of criminal justice 
                processing; and
                    (B) reduces an individual's involvement in the 
                criminal justice system in both the short and long 
                term.
            (3) The term ``emerging practice'' means a program or 
        practice--
                    (A) with initial implementation resulting in 
                decreased local jail incarceration in one or more 
                communities; and
                    (B) that will be evaluated through a well-designed 
                and rigorous study.
            (4) The term ``evidence-based practice'' means a program or 
        practice that--
                    (A) is demonstrated to be effective when 
                implemented with fidelity;
                    (B) is based on a clearly articulated and 
                empirically supported theory;
                    (C) has measurable outcomes relevant to reducing 
                jail incarceration, including a detailed description of 
                the outcomes produced in a particular population, 
                whether urban or rural; and
                    (D) has been scientifically tested and proven 
                effective through randomized control studies or 
                comparison group studies and with the ability to 
                replicate and scale.
            (5) The term ``micropolitan area'' has the meaning 
        established under the Centers for Disease Control and 
        Prevention's (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the 
        ``CDC'') National Center for Health Statistics Urban-Rural 
        Classification Scheme for Counties.
            (6) The term ``small metropolitan area'' has the meaning 
        established under the CDC's National Center for Health 
        Statistics Urban-Rural Classification Scheme for Counties.
            (7) The term ``noncore areas'' has the meaning established 
        under the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics Urban-
        Rural Classification Scheme for Counties.
            (8) The term ``post-booking diversion'' means a program or 
        practice that diverts individuals from formal criminal justice 
        system processing after formal intake processing into jail.
            (9) The term ``pre-booking diversion'' means a program or 
        practice that diverts individuals from formal criminal justice 
        system processing prior to arrest or prior to formal intake 
        processing into jail.
            (10) The term ``promising practice'' means a program or 
        practice that--
                    (A) is demonstrated to be effective based on 
                positive outcomes relevant to reducing jail 
                incarceration from one or more objective, independent, 
                and scientifically valid evaluations, as documented in 
                writing to the Attorney General; and
                    (B) will be evaluated through a well-designed and 
                rigorous study.

SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated--
            (1) $20,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2026 
        for planning grants; and
            (2) $100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2026 
        for implementation grants, of which 10 percent of any 
        appropriated amount is reserved specifically for evaluation 
        activities.
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