Lake County Superior Court Chief Judge Julie Cantrell asked the Lake County Council Thursday to create an ordinance and budget to establish a pretrial services fund and create a pretrial division.
Cantrell said state officials have told judges that state funding for Criminal Rule 26, which Lake County implemented in January 2020, will begin to roll back. In 2025, counties can apply for a grant to fund the program and then by 2026 state funding will end, she said.
“We have to do this at some point. I would rather get ahead of it rather than behind it,” Cantrell said. “All I’m asking is that you pass the ordinance and to create a budget so that I can tell them that those things are done. We’re not asking for any money at this point. I just need to be able to tell them I’ve completed so many steps to be able to ask for the grant money.”
Criminal Rule 26, a state mandate that allows persons who have been arrested and deemed low-risk offenders to be released with a court date, was renamed Criman Rule 2.6 in January, Cantrell said.
Under Criminal Rule 2.6, if someone who was arrested does not present a substantial risk of flight or danger to self or others, then the court should release them without monetary bail. It does not apply to someone charged with murder or treason, if the arrestee is on pretrial release for a different incident or if the arrestee is on probation, parole or other community supervision, according to the rule.
The rule also states, in part, that the court should use evidence-based risk assessments to determine if someone who was arrested presents a substantial risk of flight or danger to themselves or others, according to the rule.
Lake County currently follows Criminal Rule 2.6 as overtime for probation officers who do the assessments, Cantrell said. Under the pretrial services division, Cantrell said the county would eliminate the need to pay for overtime by moving current probation officers to work in the pretrial division.
Cantrell has talked to other county judges about establishing the division, and she’s received a commitment from the felony division that three probation officers can move to the pretrial division. Cantrell said one of her probation officers and one probation officer from each of the three county court divisions would also move into the pretrial division.
“We would not have to hire new probation officers to run this division. We would do it with the resources that we have,” Cantrell said. “Right now, I am hoping we’re going to keep it revenue-neutral as far as employees are concerned and salaries are concerned.”
So far, Cantrell said she only foresees additional costs to include paying for furniture and computers for the division’s office space.
The problem so far with creating the pretrial division is finding the office space for the probation officers to work, Cantrell said. But Cantrell said she’s hopeful that by 2025 or 2026 space will open up for the division.
Cantrell said since the county initially implemented Criminal Rule 26, the county’s jail population decreased by about 200 people. Under a pretrial division, Cantrell said the jail population could decrease further by one-third.
Councilman Ted Bilski, D-Hobart, said the plan to create a pretrial division is “a great idea.”
“Anything we can do to reduce that population in the jail,” Bilski said.
The council will vote on the ordinance and budget at its Tuesday meeting.
akukulka@post-trib.com