Pretrial Release: Risk Assessment Tools (SB 36)

Under Senate Bill 36 (SB 36), the Judicial Council is required to publish an annual report with data related to outcomes and potential biases in pretrial release for pretrial programs funded by the state to perform risk assessments. This 2024 report includes information on county pretrial release programs, data by superior court in large and medium courts and otherwise aggregated by superior court size, and data by risk assessment tool. The Judicial Council also published a standalone report in January 2023 to the courts and the Legislature containing recommendations to mitigate bias and disparate effect in pretrial decision making.

SB 36 also requires each pretrial services agency that uses a pretrial risk assessment tool to validate the tool used by the program by July 1, 2021, and on a regular basis thereafter, and to make specified information regarding the tool, including validation studies, publicly available. The Judicial Council has provided validation studies for several risk assessment tools in use in the courts participating in the Pretrial Pilot Program.

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SB 36 Aggregated Data Reports

SB 36 requires the Judicial Council to publish reports containing specific data on pretrial release outcomes and potential biases. Reference Exhibits in the SB 36 Pretrial Program Aggregated Data Reports below to view the complete list of release matrices.

SB 36: 2024 Pretrial Pilot Program Aggregated Data Report
SB 36: 2023 Pretrial Pilot Program Aggregated Data Report
SB 36: 2022 Pretrial Pilot Program Aggregated Data Report
SB 36: 2021 Pretrial Pilot Program Aggregated Data Report

Risk Assessment Tool Validation Studies

The reports address the validation of four pretrial risk assessment tools: Ohio Risk Assessment System–Pretrial Assessment Tool (ORAS-PAT), Public Safety Assessment (PSA), Virginia Pretrial Risk Assessment Instrument (VPRAI), and Virginia Pretrial Risk Assessment Instrument–Revised (VPRAI‑R). The Pretrial Pilot Program counties using each of these tools and included in the evaluation data set are referenced below. Counties marked with an asterisk (*) represent that the county switched to a different tool. Instances of these county names without an asterisk represent the tool that these counties switched to. 

Tool

County

 Interview

ORAS

Modoc, Napa, Nevada*, Ventura*, Yuba

 YES

PSA

Alameda, Calaveras, Los Angeles, Nevada, Sacramento, Sierra, Sonoma, Tulare, Tuolumne, Ventura

 NO

VPRAI

San Joaquin, Santa Barbara*

 YES

VPRAI-R

*Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Barbara

 YES

Contact

Criminal Justice Services
415-865-8994
pretrial@jud.ca.gov