Committee backs House Bill 592 to tighten pretrial detention standards, amid mental‑health and county resource concerns

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to recommend passage of House Bill 592 after a hearing that drew testimony from the bill’s sponsor, lawmakers, chiefs of police and county jail superintendents.

State Representative Ross Berry, the bill’s sponsor, said the proposal narrows the standard for pretrial detention to probable cause plus a showing of dangerousness, and removes magistrates from some bail determinations. "This is the same standard that, people prosecutors need to get a warrant to search your house plus the proof of dangerousness," Berry said during his presentation.

The bill reinstates a rebuttable presumption of detention for a set of serious offenses, establishes a guaranteed right for a detained person to see a judge within 36 hours (excluding weekends and holidays), and contains a clause that a judge "may not issue a bail that is restrictive on financial means…