Grant County updates pretrial policies to speed reviews and add treatment screening

Pretrial staff told the Grant County Community Corrections Board on Dec. 2 that the office has revised several policies to identify eligible people earlier and streamline treatment referrals.

Jess, who leads pretrial services, said the office currently supervises about 130 defendants and has assessed more than 1,200 people since 2018. "Ninety‑one percent of our individuals have not had a failure to appear," Jess said, citing long‑term tracking required by the state.

Jess explained three primary changes effective Dec. 1. First, the sequential review process will now include biweekly reviews of people who were not released at their meaningful first hearing to determine whether circumstances have changed. Second, cases that were not assessed at booking because of probation holds but have remained incarcerated more than 30 days will be eligible for sequential review and possible review hearings, with criteria to exclude victim‑related or higher‑risk cases. Third, pretrial staff will administer a treatment screener at meaningful first hearings so courts have a timely assessment of whether inpatient or outpatient treatment may be appropriate if the defendant is released.

The changes are intended to reduce unnecessary pretrial incarceration and speed connections to services if judges choose release to supervision. Jess also described a forthcoming state dashboard that will make pretrial metrics visible locally and noted the office's grant funding comes from the Indiana Office Support Services and has been largely stable since 2017.

The board scheduled a policy team meeting for Jan. 13 to discuss the sequential intercept module and how pretrial fits in that system. Staff said they will continue to report statutorily required data to the state.

(Reporting note: quotes and statistics are taken directly from remarks in the meeting transcript.)