After five‑year project Thurston County launches pretrial data dashboard, keeps quarterly oversight

Thurston County judges and criminal‑justice stakeholders reported to the Board of County Commissioners on Feb. 19, 2025 that a five‑year pretrial policy and research project has produced an interactive data dashboard, implementation of a validated public safety assessment and a plan to continue quarterly oversight.

Judge Chris Schaller, who led the project’s advisory group, said Thurston County began the technical‑assistance project in July 2019 with funding and support from national partners. The effort included a multi‑agency advisory committee composed of judges, the prosecuting attorney’s office, public defense, pretrial services, law enforcement and county officials; that committee stayed intact through the project. "We were one of a very few research action sites that were selected for this project," Judge Schaller said.

Presenters said the project mapped the pretrial system, created communications protocols, improved first‑appearance procedures, and implemented the Public Safety Assessment (PSA), a validated tool that provides risk information used at initial hearings. They said the signature product of the project is a data dashboard, developed with assistance from national partners, that can generate monthly and quarterly reports on releases, conditions, court appearance rates and re‑arrest during the pretrial period.

"We now have an interactive dashboard and the ability to produce monthly reports, quarterly reports that really give us a very detailed look at all aspects of our pretrial system," one presenter said. The dashboard draws from the county pretrial case management system and related sources to enable staff to examine case types, risk levels, release conditions (including cash bail and supervision), detention proportions and outcomes.

Presenters emphasized the practical value of data: rather than relying on anecdotes, staff said the dashboard allows the county to say how many people are released pretrial, the percentage who appear for court, and the share who are arrested for new violations during pretrial. The advisory group said those two outcome measures — court appearance and remaining arrest‑free — are central to assessing pretrial success.

The advisory group recommended continued quarterly meetings rather than the monthly cadence used during the technical‑assistance phase. Officials said they have secured additional data‑focused assistance from the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Justice for All program for roughly 18 months to refine dashboard functionality and plan for dashboard sustainability so local staff can update it without ongoing external coding support.

Project leaders credited national technical assistance — including support from Arnold Ventures, the Center for Justice Innovation and other vendors — for enabling the county to build the dashboard and implement changes. They said the county’s work is relatively advanced compared with most jurisdictions and that Thurston County’s collaborative approach, including participation from law enforcement and local police chiefs, was noted by national partners.

Commissioners welcomed the data capability but raised questions about consistency across county dashboards. One commissioner asked whether the pretrial dashboard uses the same underlying data sources as other dashboards (for example, those maintained by the prosecutor or sheriff). Presenters said the data come from different systems but represent the same underlying cases; integrating multiple dashboards into a single warehouse remained a longer‑term goal.

No formal actions were taken. The advisory group will meet quarterly, continue training for new staff and refreshers for existing staff, and work with county IT and external partners on a handoff plan to keep the dashboard updated after external assistance ends.

Why it matters: The dashboard provides the county with its first comprehensive, near‑real‑time view of pretrial releases, conditions and outcomes — information officials said is essential to measuring whether changes to pretrial practice increase court appearance rates and reduce re‑arrest.

What’s next: Presenters said they will use the 18 months of Bureau of Justice Assistance technical assistance to make the dashboard sustainable, continue quarterly data reviews and pursue additional opportunities to better integrate justice system data across county offices.