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Pretrial Release Policy Statement

The Durham County District Attorney's Office has implemented a new pretrial release policy that moves away from setting monetary bond amounts based on a person's wealth. The policy instead prioritizes public safety and risk of flight in making pretrial release recommendations. It establishes a presumption that people charged with non-violent offenses should be released pretrial without monetary conditions. Since implementing the policy, the number of people detained at the Durham County Detention Facility has decreased by 15%, saving taxpayers money. The District Attorney believes the previous cash bail system disproportionately impacted the poor and people of color.

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104 views1 page

Pretrial Release Policy Statement

The Durham County District Attorney's Office has implemented a new pretrial release policy that moves away from setting monetary bond amounts based on a person's wealth. The policy instead prioritizes public safety and risk of flight in making pretrial release recommendations. It establishes a presumption that people charged with non-violent offenses should be released pretrial without monetary conditions. Since implementing the policy, the number of people detained at the Durham County Detention Facility has decreased by 15%, saving taxpayers money. The District Attorney believes the previous cash bail system disproportionately impacted the poor and people of color.

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Durham DA's Office
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Satana Deberry Media contact

District Attorney Sarah Willets, Communication Specialist


919-808-3181
Prosecutorial District 16 [email protected]
Durham County

510 S. Dillard St, 8th Floor, Durham,


NC, 27701
O 919-808-3010
F 919-808-3034

NEWS RELEASE
May 28, 2019
For immediate release

Durham District Attorney’s Office Implements New Pretrial Release Policy

DURHAM, NC – The Durham County District Attorney’s Office believes that whether people are detained or
released while awaiting trial should be determined by the danger they pose to our community and their risk of
flight, not their ability to pay a money bond. To that end, the DA’s Office has put in place a new pretrial release
policy that moves away from wealth-based detention, and toward a system based on safety.

The policy informs what recommendations prosecutors make to judges, who ultimately set pretrial release
conditions in accordance with a local judicial pretrial release policy. The DA’s office policy aligns the State’s
recommendations with North Carolina law and the United States Constitution, as well as a body of research finding
that pretrial incarceration often results in little public safety benefit while causing great harm to individuals and
increasing recidivism.

“Research shows the cash bail system disproportionately impacts lower-wealth people and people of color.
Setting high money bail doesn’t ensure that dangerous people remain in jail, it ensures poor people stay in jail,”
said District Attorney Satana Deberry. “This policy removes wealth from the equation to the extent possible under
North Carolina law, instead making public safety the determining factor in pretrial release recommendations.”

While prosecutors can and should weigh each case individually, the policy establishes a presumption that people
charged with offenses not involving physical harm or threats of physical harm to another person should be
released pretrial without monetary conditions. This presumption extends to misdemeanors and low-level felonies,
with an exception for domestic violence cases. The policy does not include a bond schedule correlating specific
charges to suggested bond amounts.

“In the American justice system, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. This office believes people
should only be detained prior to trial if they pose a flight risk or they are a danger to themselves or others,”
Deberry said.

As the DA’s Office has implemented this policy, the number of people detained in the Durham County Detention
Facility has fallen 15 percent, saving Durham taxpayers money and reserving criminal justice resources for serious
cases.

“This policy is part of a larger effort to rethink when and why we impose incarceration, and to reduce unnecessary
prosecution of individuals facing charges that often arise from poverty, mental illness, and substance use,” Deberry
said.

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