One of my judges wants to explore a personal bond program. I'm not sure if I'm calling it the correct name but I've heard of a program within which qualified defendants can be given personal bonds but also be required to pay a monthly fee, report to someone once a month, and abide by certain bond conditions. The "program" administrator (perhaps a probation officer) essentially keeps up with the defendant while they are on the personal bond. Has anyone had experience with these types of programs? How does it work in your jurisdiction and would you recommend such a program? Thanks.

We have a personal bond program in our county, we call it "pretrial release." It's mainly only for low level, non-violent younger offenders, and they're released on a personal bond, then they're supervised by a division of the probation department, Pretrial Services. The defendant reports regularly to an officer, is subject to UAs and other rules, and if they fail to report or fail a UA, we file a motion to revoke their bond and throw them back in jail. (Which, of course, resolves many cases faster.) It's sort of like being on probation before the case is disposed of.

Is there any information on how to get one of these started?