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GGD-85-84 1 (1985-09-26)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabfjk0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Office of Congdes ia REPORT BY THE U, S, General Accounting Office Federal District Courts' Implementation Of The 1982 Pretrial Services Act The Pretrial Services Act of 1982 requires that federal district court judges and magistrates be provided with verified background informa- tion on all criminal defendants charged with felonies or misdemeanors before defendants' bail hearings. GAO was asked to determine to what extent the act is being implemented and whether federal district courts are properly reporting data to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. Overall, data reported by the federal district courts for calendar year 1984 shows that 21,158 of 43,851 eligible criminal defendants (48 percent) were contacted by the courts before bail hearings as intended by the act. According to Judiciary officials, all eligible criminal de- fendants are not being contacted before hearings because (1) most district courts do not have enough staff to fully implement the program, (2) some judicial officers do not support the program and some do not believe all criminal defendants need to be interviewed, and (3) pretrial services offices are not always notified of eligible defendants. The Judiciary has requested funds from the Congress for 307 additional probation positions to implement the pretrial services program in fiscal year 1986 and has undertaken initiatives to more effectively use existing resources for pretrial services. GAO's review in five district courts generally showed that the information reported to the Administrative Office was accurate; however, the pretrial data has not been subjected to a systemwide reliability test. ,. , -- D $ ,128215 GAO/GGD-85-84 SEPTEMBER 26, 1985 C O t I N '

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