Engaging the Community in Support of Bail Reform Efforts in Los Angeles County

The Los Angeles County Probation Department seeks to reform its bail system so that individuals awaiting trial are held out of jail and connected to their communities. To that end, the department’s Pretrial Services Bureau had to revamp its operational protocols to provide varying levels of assessment and post-release services, including community-based services. Tasked with developing a community engagement strategy for the Bureau, FUSE Executive Fellow Shadeequa Smith helped increase access to pretrial services in the community, develop partnerships with community stakeholders, and improve the community’s understanding of the function and availability of pretrial services.

To determine needs and shared values around pretrial bail reform, Shadeequa facilitated engagement among pretrial services staff, probation leadership, community-based organizations, and hundreds of community members. She identified a range of issues that needed to be addressed, including the Bureau’s lack of community presence, misinformation around pretrial services, and a lack of collaboration between pretrial services and community-based organizations. To create a strategy for improvement, Shadeequa held town halls and created a consortium of advisors, while also conducting research on best practices and racial and ethnic disparities in the pretrial probation system. Her work is helping support criminal-justice reform that decreases pretrial incarceration and facilitates successful community reintegration.