Letters of Support for NPRP

September 24, 2013

Dear County:
I am writing to convey my full support for the National Pretrial Reporting Program
(NPRP), led by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Pretrial Justice Institute (PJI), and
the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute (UI). This project seeks to explore the
feasibility of generating nationally representative statistics about the pretrial population
and develop strategies for creating a data collection program at the national level. The
results from the Jurisdictional Capacity Survey will inform this project’s work.
As the first partner in PJI’s Pretrial Justice Working Group, the National Association
of Counties and its members fully understand the need to promote research and
development in the field of pretrial services. We are keenly aware of the lack of
nationally representative data currently available on the pretrial population. The need
for such data today is particularly acute; in the past two decades, the United States’ jail
population has experienced dramatic growth, driven in part by the increasing numbers
of defendants held in jail while awaiting their trial. As a result of this increase and its
associated costs, the management of the growing pretrial population has become a
major area of concern for practitioners, policymakers, academics, and the general
public. However, since the limited data that currently exist on the pretrial population
do not provide information on pretrial programs or evidence-based practices, it cannot
shed light on the processing of pretrial cases or cost-effective strategies of managing
pretrial populations. If successful, the data collection program developed through the
NPRP will help fill this crucial gap in the availability of relevant, comprehensive data
on the pretrial population.
The Jurisdictional Capacity survey, which seeks to collect detailed information from a
nationally representative sample of jurisdictions about pretrial data collection, plays a
critical role in NPRP. The results of this survey will provide highly useful and valuable
information about the types of pretrial data that jurisdictions track, the effort required

to pull this data, and the way in which information is located within different parts of
the criminal justice system in each jurisdiction. These findings will help inform and
develop NPRP’s data collection program and strategy going forward.
We fully support the Jurisdictional Capacity Survey because we believe it will provide
invaluable information to NPRP and help the project create a data collection program
that addresses the limitations in national pretrial data collection. We appreciate the
opportunity to be a part of this important project.
Sincerely,

Dan Gillison
Director, County Solutions and Innovation
NACo

National Association of
Pretrial Services
Agencies

August 26, 2013
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to convey my full support for the National Pretrial Reporting Program
(NPRP), led by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Pretrial Justice Institute (PJI), and
the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute (UI). This project seeks to explore the
feasibility of generating nationally representative statistics about the pretrial population
and develop strategies for creating a data collection program at the national level. The
results from the Jurisdictional Capacity Survey will inform this project’s work.
As one of the aims of National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies (NAPSA) is
to promote research and development in the field of pretrial services, we are keenly
aware of the lack of nationally representative data currently available on the pretrial
population. The need for such data today is particularly acute; in the past two decades,
the United States’ jail population has experienced dramatic growth, driven in part by
the increasing numbers of defendants held in jail while awaiting their trial. As a result
of this increase and its associated costs, the management of the growing pretrial
population has become a major area of concern for practitioners, policymakers,
academics, and the general public. However, since the limited data that currently exist
on the pretrial population do not provide information on pretrial programs or evidencebased practices, it cannot shed light on the processing of pretrial cases or cost-effective
strategies of managing pretrial populations. If successful, the data collection program
developed through the NPRP will help fill this crucial gap in the availability of
relevant, comprehensive data on the pretrial population.
The Jurisdictional Capacity survey, which seeks to collect detailed information from a
nationally representative sample of jurisdictions about pretrial data collection, plays a
critical role in NPRP. The results of this survey will provide highly useful and valuable
information about the types of pretrial data that jurisdictions track, the effort required
to pull this data, and the way in which information is located within different parts of
the criminal justice system in each jurisdiction. These findings will help inform and
develop NPRP’s data collection program and strategy going forward.

"Promoting
 Pretrial
 Justice
 through
 the
 Development
 &
 Support

of
 Pretrial
 Services
 Agencies
 Nationwide"

601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
South Building Suite 900
Washington, DC 20004
www.napsa.org

National Association of
Pretrial Services
Agencies

We fully support the Jurisdictional Capacity Survey because we believe it will provide
invaluable information to NPRP and help the project create a data collection program
that addresses the limitations in national pretrial data collection. We appreciate the
opportunity to be a part of this important project.
Sincerely,

Cherise Fanno Burdeen
President

"Promoting
 Pretrial
 Justice
 through
 the
 Development
 &
 Support

of
 Pretrial
 Services
 Agencies
 Nationwide"

601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
South Building Suite 900
Washington, DC 20004
www.napsa.org