Trying our best isn’t good enough: Minnesotans call for evidence-based solutions for pretrial transformation

By the Minnesota Justice Research Center

A recent piece in the Star Tribune titled “How the most important courtroom in Minneapolis churns through an endless stream of violent crime” describes the emotional, high-stakes environment of bail hearings in Hennepin County. It details how, within minutes, public defenders, state prosecutors, and judges determine the price a defendant must pay for their freedom while they await trial. The article calls attention to the “exhausting” and “bureaucratic” nature of Minnesota’s current pretrial system (also called a “bail system”). But it fails to mention that the system is also expensive, ineffective, and racially disparate.

People working in the system, community members impacted by it, and Minnesotans across the political spectrum agree our current pretrial system isn’t working as it should. Yet, after laying out clear problems with Minnesota’s pretrial processes, the Star Tribune article leaves out a crucial conversation about solutions and those of us working on them.

One attorney quoted in the article laments that “no one is willing to take a look at these things from a constitutional perspective, from a fairness perspective, from a release perspective.” While we agree that not enough people are critically examining this system, the Minnesota Justice Research Center (MNJRC) has.

In 2023, the Minnesota Legislature commissioned the MNJRC to study our state’s pretrial system and propose solutions to redesign it. Almost two years of rigorous research later, we’ve published a report outlining six core policy changes that address the inequities and safety issues in Minnesota’s pretrial practices. We invite those concerned about the system’s unfairness to read our recommendations and engage with our tools for change.

The article features the idea that “[cash] bail is essential for accountability” – but our research disagrees. System actors, community members, and legal scholars agree that the goals of the pretrial process should be to ensure a defendant’s appearance at court and protect the community from harm in the meantime. Our findings show that making defendants pay cash,  whether to the court or a for-profit bail bond company, does not ensure either of these outcomes. To encourage accountability, we need a system that supports people through community-based pretrial services and more intentionally detains or releases people based on evidence, not their ability to pay money.

The article also suggests that cash bail prevents harm by keeping accused people out of the community. Not only is it unconstitutional to use money to intentionally detain Minnesotans pretrial, but this assumption also ignores the harm caused by unnecessary pretrial detention. People lose jobs, homes, and family connections while awaiting trial, whether they’re guilty or not. At the same time, our findings show that crime victims often feel unheard and unsafe during the pretrial period.

If preventing harm is our goal, a system that relies on cash bail and keeps victims in the dark is not the answer. Instead, we recommend significant improvements to communication with victims and collaboration with victim/survivor advocates. Our research shows that an intentional detain/release system would ensure that only those accused of certain crimes who pose a real danger remain detained pretrial, while others can be safely released with appropriate conditions.  

The article concludes with a prosecutor describing the system as an “imperfect” one in which everyone is “trying their best.” But our current pretrial system is more than imperfect; it actively harms individuals and communities by disproportionately jailing Black and Indigenous Minnesotans, allowing someone’s wealth to decide whether they go free pretrial, and leaving victims uninformed throughout the process. 

This is not the best we can do. We need a pretrial system that is grounded in safety, liberty, and equity, and we have evidence-based tools to get there. 

Want to be a part of the community-based effort towards pretrial system transformation in Minnesota?  Explore MNJRC’s findings and recommendations, attend a court-watching session, and advocate for the pretrial data transparency bill making its way through the legislature.