A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to provide that certain conditions of pretrial release imposed on a defendant who has failed to appear to answer one or more charges is permissive rather than mandatory.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 15A‑534(d1) reads as rewritten:
"(d1)	When conditions of pretrial release are being imposed on a defendant who has failed on one or more prior occasions to appear to answer one or more of the charges to which the conditions apply, the judicial official may impose the conditions of pretrial release that are recommended in any order for the arrest of the defendant that was issued for the defendant's most recent failure to appear. If no conditions are recommended in that order for arrest, the judicial official may require the execution of a secured appearance bond in an amount at least double the amount of the most recent previous secured or unsecured bond for the charges or, if no bond has yet been required for the charges, in the amount of at least one thousand dollars ($1,000). The judicial official may also impose such restrictions on the travel, associations, conduct, or place of abode of the defendant as will assure that the defendant will not again fail to appear. The judicial official shall indicate on the release order that the defendant was arrested or surrendered after failing to appear as required under a prior release order. If the information available to the judicial official indicates that the defendant has failed on two or more prior occasions to appear to answer the charges, the judicial official shall indicate that fact on the release order."
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective October 1, 2019, and applies to conditions of pretrial release imposed on or after that date.