A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to provide start‑up grant funds for innovative pretrial services and to appropriate funds.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Public Safety, Governor's Crime Commission (Commission), the sum of one million dollars ($1,000,000) for the 2019‑2020 fiscal year to be used to establish a grant program to assist judicial districts and counties within judicial districts reduce the use of secured bonds as a condition of pretrial release and increase the use of alternatives such as (i) citation in lieu of arrest, (ii) summons in lieu of arrest, (iii) early participation of defense counsel, (iv) early participation by the prosecutor, (v) prompt judicial review of the magistrate's pretrial decision, (vi) additional information for decision makers, and (vii) court date reminder systems.
Judicial districts or counties must submit grant proposals to the Commission no later than October 1, 2019. No grant may be for more than two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000), and the Commission shall distribute the grants equitably across the State and among rural and urban judicial districts and counties. All grant proposals must include a process for evaluating whether the proposed changes resulted in a reduction in the use of secured bonds as a condition of pretrial release, and the Commission shall establish a schedule by which each judicial district or county that receives a grant must submit the results of its evaluation. The Commission shall report the results to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety no later than December 1, 2020.
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2019.