Title: No Money Bail Act
Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement

Summary:
No Money Bail Act
This bill restricts the use of money bail (i.e., the payment of money as a condition of pretrial release) in criminal cases.
Specifically, it prohibits the use of money bail in federal criminal cases.
Additionally, it amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968:
The Government Accountability Office must assess the alternative bail systems used by states.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3271 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3271

  To prohibit the use of payment of money as a condition of pretrial 
       release in Federal criminal cases, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 25, 2018

  Mr. Sanders introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To prohibit the use of payment of money as a condition of pretrial 
       release in Federal criminal cases, and for other purposes.

    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 ``No Money Bail Act''.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF MONEY BAIL IN FEDERAL CRIMINAL CASES.

    Notwithstanding any provision of Federal law, no justice, judge, or 
other judicial official in any court created by or under article III of 
the Constitution of the United States may use payment of money as a 
condition of pretrial release in any criminal case.

SEC. 3. ALTERNATIVE BAIL SYSTEMS.

    Title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 
(34 U.S.C. 10101 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the 
following:

                ``PART NN--ALTERNATIVE PRETRIAL PROTOCOL

``SEC. 3041. GRANTS.

    ``(a) Grants Authorized.--
            ``(1) Alternatives to money bail.--The Assistant Attorney 
        General may make grants to State and tribal court systems and 
        eligible entities for developing alternatives to the use of 
        payment of money bail as a condition of pretrial release with 
        respect to criminal cases.
            ``(2) National pretrial reporting program.--The Assistant 
        Attorney General may make grants to eligible entities to 
        implement a National Pretrial Reporting Program to collect data 
        on the processing of defendants by courts of States and units 
        of local government.
    ``(b) Use of Funds for Alternatives to Money Bail Grants.--
            ``(1) In general.--Amounts received under a grant under 
        subsection (a)(1) shall be used for developing expanded 
        alternatives to preventive detention programs that perform more 
        effective evidence-based pretrial practices and result in 
        annual statistically significant decreases in the pretrial 
        detention populations of States and units of local government.
            ``(2) Right to counsel.--An eligible entity receiving a 
        grant under subsection (a)(1) shall provide a defendant with 
        counsel at the earlier of--
                    ``(A) as soon as is feasible after custodial 
                restraint; or
                    ``(B) the first appearance before a committing 
                magistrate, judge, or other judicial officer.
            ``(3) Limit on detention.--An eligible entity receiving a 
        grant under subsection (a)(1), with respect to a defendant--
                    ``(A) may not use preventive detention if an 
                alternative measure is sufficient to ensure a court 
                appearance and public safety;
                    ``(B) may not use an alternative measure to 
                preventive detention developed under paragraph (1) if 
                release of the defendant on unsecured bond or 
                recognizance is sufficient to ensure a court appearance 
                and public safety; and
                    ``(C) may use preventive detention only if a 
                judicial officer determines, by clear and convincing 
                evidence, that detention is necessary.
            ``(4) Preventive detention protocol.--An eligible entity 
        receiving a grant under subsection (a)(1) shall--
                    ``(A) grant a defendant the right to appeal a 
                preventive detention order within 48 hours of the 
                order; and
                    ``(B) review the preventive detention order on a 
                monthly basis.
    ``(c) Data Report.--Each entity receiving a grant under subsection 
(a)(1) shall submit to the Assistant Attorney General, for each fiscal 
year during which the entity expends amounts received under the grant, 
a data report on the money bail program of the State or Indian tribe, 
at such time and in such manner as the Assistant Attorney General may 
reasonably require, which shall--
            ``(1) be broken down by the demographic variables of age 
        group, sex, race and ethnicity, disability, and income of the 
        defendant;
            ``(2) include the percentage of defendants detained in jail 
        or prison who are released from jail or prison prior to case 
        disposition, broken down by demographic variables of age group, 
        sex, race and ethnicity, disability, income, and release 
        condition;
            ``(3) provide the average time to release from jail for 
        defendants who are released pretrial, broken down by 
        demographic variables of age group, sex, race and ethnicity, 
        disability, income, and release condition;
            ``(4) provide the percentage of defendants who are detained 
        for the entire duration of the pretrial phase of their case, 
        broken down by demographic variables of age group, sex, race 
        and ethnicity, disability, income, and reason for detention;
            ``(5) provide the average duration of the period defendants 
        who are not released are in custody in a prison or jail before 
        the disposition of their case, broken down by demographic 
        variables of age group, sex, race and ethnicity, disability, 
        income, and reason for detention;
            ``(6) provide the percentage of defendants released from 
        custody before trial who appeared at all court appearances for 
        which the court expected them to appear during the pretrial 
        phase of their case, broken down by demographic variables of 
        age group, sex, race and ethnicity, disability, income, and 
        release condition;
            ``(7) provide the percentage of defendants released from 
        custody before trial who were not arrested for or charged with 
        a new crime during the pretrial phase of their case, broken 
        down by demographic variables of age group, sex, race and 
        ethnicity, disability, income, and release condition;
            ``(8) provide data on the access of defendants to counsel, 
        including the number of counsel appointments for indigent 
        defendants and the outcomes of pretrial release decisions based 
        on whether counsel was provided;
            ``(9) provide data on the case outcomes of defendants who 
        were released on recognizance, placed in an alternative to 
        detention program developed under subsection (b)(1), or placed 
        in preventive detention; and
            ``(10) provide data on the cost per defendant of preventive 
        detention and each form of alternative to detention developed 
        under subsection (b)(1).
    ``(d) Allocation of Funds.--
            ``(1) In general.--For fiscal year 2018, of the amounts 
        appropriated to the Office, the Assistant Attorney General 
        shall use such sums as are necessary to carry out this part.
            ``(2) Equitable distribution.--The Assistant Attorney 
        General shall ensure that grants awarded under this section are 
        equitably distributed among the geographical regions and 
        between urban and rural populations, including Indian tribes, 
        consistent with the objective of reducing recidivism among 
        criminal offenders.
    ``(e) Contract Authority.--Each entity receiving a grant under 
subsection (a)--
            ``(1) may contract with nongovernmental community-based 
        organizations to--
                    ``(A) operate community-based supervision programs; 
                and
                    ``(B) develop evaluation metrics for carrying out 
                effective pretrial practices; and
            ``(2) may not use funds to contract with an entity offering 
        for-profit pretrial services.''.

SEC. 4. INELIGIBILITY FOR CERTAIN FUNDS.

    Section 505 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe 
Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10156) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), in the matter preceding 
                subparagraph (A), by striking ``in paragraph (2)'' and 
                inserting ``in paragraphs (2) and (3)''; and
                    (B) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(3) Eligibility.--Beginning with the third fiscal year 
        beginning after the date of enactment of the No Money Bail Act, 
        the Attorney General may not allocate any amounts appropriated 
        to carry out this subpart to any State that uses payment as a 
        condition of pretrial release with respect to a criminal 
        case.''; and
            (2) in subsection (f)--
                    (A) by striking ``If the Attorney General'' and 
                inserting:
            ``(1) In general.--If the Attorney General''; and
                    (B) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(2) State ineligible due to system of bail.--
        Notwithstanding paragraph (1), if the Attorney General 
        determines, with respect to any grant period, that a State is 
        ineligible under subsection (a)(3), the Attorney General shall 
        reallocate any amounts allocated to the State or that would 
        have been allocated to the State for such period--
                    ``(A) among the other eligible States; and
                    ``(B) in proportion to allocations among eligible 
                States under subsection (a).''.

SEC. 5. GAO ASSESSMENT.

    Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the 
Comptroller General of the United States shall conduct an assessment of 
pretrial systems used by States in place of the use of payment of money 
bail as a condition of pretrial release with respect to criminal cases, 
which shall include an--
            (1) an assessment of the effectiveness of the pretrial 
        systems;
            (2) a measurement of any disparities on the basis of any 
        classification protected under Federal nondiscrimination laws 
        or the nondiscrimination laws of the applicable State in the 
        use of the pretrial systems; and
            (3) a measurement of any disparities on the basis of 
        socioeconomic status.
                                 <all>