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Committee re‑refers pretrial reporting bill after sponsors remove public dashboard to reduce cost
Summary
House File 1775, which would require standardized statewide reporting on pretrial detention and case outcomes, was amended to remove a public, searchable dashboard and then re‑referred to Judiciary Finance and Civil Law for further work; sponsors said data centralization remains the goal.
Sponsors amended House File 1775 to remove a costly public dashboard and re‑referred the bill to Judiciary Finance and Civil Law for additional work on fiscal and access issues. The bill would require courts and other system actors to report pretrial data already being collected to a central repository (BCA and the Sentencing Guidelines Commission were named as recipients in the amended language) to improve transparency about pretrial practices.
Author Representative Pinto told the committee the amendment eliminates the public dashboard and focuses the bill on reporting information already collected, reducing additional burden on local courts. Anna Hall of the Minnesota Justice Research Center (MNJRC) told the committee the MNJRC’s 2023 pretrial study found Minnesota lacks statewide, standardized pretrial data and recommended creating a statewide pretrial data system: “Without a standard system of data collection Minnesota's pretrial system lacks transparency,” she said.
A number of members pressed sponsors on public access and analysis: Representative Hudson said removing the public dashboard meant the public would no longer have direct access and raised concerns that analysis would be filtered through a contracted nonprofit. Pinto answered that the immediate priority is gathering data in one place and that broader public or legislative queries could follow once the data exists.
Local pretrial practitioners supported data collection. Cass County pretrial officer Travis Fisher said pretrial services in rural counties reduced reliance on cash bail in his county and described uneven practices across counties. Sponsors and advocates said the objective is to make the system less opaque so policymakers can evaluate fairness and safety across jurisdictions.
The committee adopted the A1 author’s amendment (which removed the dashboard) and re‑referred the bill to Judiciary Finance and Civil Law. Members asked the sponsor and staff for fiscal estimates; Pinto said no formal fiscal note had been received but the prior public‑dashboard concept had been estimated at “several million dollars.”
