By: Erin King, Customer Success Manager
Pretrial reform continues to gain positive momentum across the nation. Guided by decades of evidenced-based standards and promulgated by the National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies (NAPSA), the delivery of Pretrial Services is a topic trending at state, local, and agency levels.
In 2020, NAPSA released a revised version of National Standards on Pretrial Release–and agencies around the country were encouraged to strive to meet these best and promising practices in the field of pretrial. As pretrial reform continues to evolve, incorporating these standards will be more than aspirational, it will be absolutely essential. This revised version represents the gold standard of pretrial services. We, at equivant Supervision and Pretrial, recognize that the journey to meet this gold standard criteria may require flexibility, as a jurisdiction’s culture regarding pretrial practices continues to develop. To support these endeavors, our solutions provide ways to meet standards, capture data, and truly measure what matters.
equivant Pretrial’s solutions, powered by the Northpointe Suite, provides agencies with the capabilities to meet many NAPSA Standards, including the ability to Maximize Release, Maximize Public Safety, and Maximize Court Appearance. One of the core NAPSA standards is the use of a validated assessment instrument. The Northpointe Suite offers a library of Pretrial Risk Assessments, including the Public Safety Assessment (PSA), the Virginia Pretrial Risk Assessment Instrument (VPRAI) and Virginia Pretrial Risk Assessment-Revised (VPRAI-R), the California Pretrial Assessment-Revised (CAPA-R), and MI Praxis.
Our pretrial module is specifically designed to address another of NAPSA’s vital standards, data collection. Through configurable dashboards that natively display the National Institute of Corrections’ Measuring What Matters metrics, to the Suite’s robust ad-hoc capabilities, equivant Pretrial delivers industry leading technology to support your daily operations. In addition, research has demonstrated that appearance rate is drastically improved when defendants are reminded of their upcoming court appearance. equivant Pretrial’s built-in, configurable SMS messaging and email reminder notification capabilities help to support a defendant’s return to court.
At equivant Pretrial, we strive to continuously engage with our partners and solve problems through an ever-evolving software platform. The standard that requires judicial officials to make prompt, fair, and informed bail decisions that promote future court appearances and enhance public safety was the impetus for the creation of the secure Judicial Portal. We collaborated with our partners to develop the Judicial Portal so that release decisions can be expedited and efficiently addressed anytime, anywhere. With this standard in focus, we collaborated with our partners to develop a secure Judicial Portal, so that release decisions can be expedited and efficiently addressed anytime, anywhere.
The journey to meet NAPSA Standards does not have to be overwhelming–we’re here to help. Come take a look at what equivant Pretrial and the Northpointe Suite has to offer your agency and reach out to get a conversation started today.
