Each weekday afternoon, a group of inmates shuffle into a starkly lit intake room at the East Baton Rouge Parish jail, as a duty judge livestreaming from the 19th Judicial District Courthouse awaits them via video feed.
One by one, the judge calls the inmates to the front of the room and explains the charges they are facing, advises them of their rights, determines if they are entitled to bond and, if so, sets a bail amount for their release.
The procedural proceeding plays out almost every day in courtrooms nationwide for arrestees within the first 24 hours after they have been booked into jailhouses. At Baton Rouge’s district courthouse, the daily ritual is known as “call-outs.”
The initial appearance can play a key role in the trajectory of a criminal defendant’s case. If a judge sets their bail too high, an inmate can languish behind bars for weeks unable to afford the cost to get out. That makes it more difficult for them to find and hire an attorney, participate in their own criminal defense and earn money to pay their legal fees.
If a judge sets bail too low, it could pave the way for a potentially violent offender to return to the streets and prey on more victims.
It’s a tightrope judges must walk carefully, and multiple members of the parish’s judiciary agreed it can be one of the most difficult and complex decisions they are tasked with. An increasing volume of cases over the past decade only adds to the degree of difficulty.
“One of the biggest factors for me is if you’re already out on bond and then you again get arrested for something similar or the same offense,” District Judge Fred Crifasi explained during an August interview with The Advocate. “Obviously it happens. But you just have to look at each case individually. I think every judge here is concerned about that, and they do what they think they have to do to abide by both the right to bail and the (defendant's) presumption of innocence while maintaining public safety at the same time.”
Traditionally, the 19th JDC has shared bond duties among the eight district judges assigned to the court’s criminal docket, scheduling each of them to handle a week of daily call-outs on a rotating basis. But the 19th JDC is entering 2024 with a plan to lift that onus off the district judges, who are burdened with handling other important case matters like pretrial motions, trial dockets, and sentencing those adjudicated guilty.
The new blueprint, called the Court Intervention Program, is designed to streamline how criminal cases are processed in the 19th JDC. Two new commissioners — ad hoc judges appointed by elected judges on the 19th JDC bench — will play a key role in that transformation. The commissioners, set to be hired by July 1, will team up with the pair of veteran commissioners already handling cases to oversee a new bail compliance court as part of the intervention model. The four of them will be tasked with keeping better tabs on suspects out on bond as part of an oversight docket dubbed Commissioners’ Court, according to Chief Judge Donald Johnson.
“What we want to do is create a system where the victim is safer. Not just the perception of being safe, but actually safer,” he said.
What is bond?
Criminal cases weave through the courts like legal opuses reliant on a symphony of moving parts that work together in concert. If one piece of the ensemble is missing, it can throw off the meticulous balance and usually forces proceedings to be delayed for several weeks.
Among the orchestra of attorneys, victims and witnesses, the accused is perhaps the most integral character to keep cases flowing as scheduled. To make sure defendants continue showing up for court and don’t go on the run, judges set bail essentially as a collateral.
Bail is designed to be a tool that ensures defendants abide by a set of conditions if they are released from jail while awaiting trial. Judges can impose a curfew, put defendants on house arrest, subject them to drug screenings, assign ankle monitoring, various treatment programs or issue restraining orders that prohibit them from entering certain hazard zones. If a defendant violates the conditions, judges can revoke their bail and have them re-arrested. Defendants also run the risk of forfeiting the bail money paid for their release.
Each judge has his or her own style when setting bonds. While some like to review rap sheets and set bail amounts beforehand, other judges in the 19th JDC like to ask attorneys and defendants questions during the call-outs so they can make their decision in the moment with the most up-to-date information.
“I’m using your answers and I’m making determinations as I go. I’m plugging it into the formula,” District Judge Will Jorden said, describing his process.
Some courts use a system of schedule bonds that set a fixed bail amount for every charge. In the 19th JDC, judges have discretion to set bail for each case as they see fit.
The bail amount depends on 10 factors, outlined in the state's Code of Criminal Procedure. Among them is the seriousness of the charge, the weight of evidence against a defendant, his or her criminal past, their ability to post bond, their level of flight risk, and the level of danger they pose to themselves and the community at large. A major factor Jorden considers when he makes bail determinations is whether or not a defendant has other open cases pending.
“Everybody has their own calculus for how much weight they give each factor on its own because there’s no set standard for how you do that," Jorden said during a sit down with The Advocate in July. "And you also have to remember that you’re not trying to prejudge an individual based on accusations.”
Changes in the East Baton Rouge court
Ten specialty courts, diversionary programs and pretrial initiatives will fall under purview of the Court Intervention Program. The effort is expected to take eight to 12 months to fully implement and will roll out in phases over the course of the year.
The Commissioners’ Court and a domestic violence pilot program will be two new evidence-based, problem-solving dockets introduced this year as part of the restructuring.
The compliance court for domestic violence cases is poised to be the first to launch by the end of March. Alleged abusers will undergo treatment and commissioners will use ankle monitors to track them. Provisions of a state law enacted last year to tighten GPS monitoring rules call for the courts to get real-time alerts anytime a battery defendant violates a protective order.
If the pilot court goes well, the 19th JDC will begin transitioning its intervention model to other crimes, until every defendant released on bond in a violent case is subject to electronic monitoring.
The Commissioners’ Court will kick off after the new commissioners are hired in July. The Louisiana Supreme Court and state Legislature both signed off last year on the 19th JDC’s plan to add the magistrates. Metro Council members earmarked more than $456,000 to phase-in the costs for the new positions and their offices over the first year, according to the city-parish budget.
Traditionally, a defendant comes back before a judge only for periodic court dates, unless bond supervisors report that the person violated conditions of their release. Under the new paradigm, commissioners will essentially become pretrial probation officers, requiring people with pending cases to come to court and check in with them more frequently, Johnson explained. The commissioners will be able to review, revoke and modify bonds. The hope is that attorneys will no longer need to motion judges to adjust bail amounts because those changes can be made organically during compliance hearings.
District judges, who currently handle call-outs and most of the court’s bond work, often don’t have time to do regular compliance checks throughout the case because they must focus on other docket matters. The aim of the new court is for commissioners to take a more watchful, “short-leash approach” to ensure defendants are compliant with their bail conditions.
“It frees the (district) judges to do the other motion work and trial work to resolve cases,” Johnson said. “Now we have a whole new way of confronting how we do things from date of arrest to when they’re released on bond all the way through to date of ultimate disposition.”
Once in effect, parishioners will feel the impacts of the court’s intervention model almost as soon as they are locked up. Court leaders plan to use refined screening measures at the jail to do better risk assessments for each arrestee. Those suspected to have addiction issues will also be given a urinalysis upon arrest, and commissioners will tailor a treatment plan for those who test positive.
The chief judge hopes all the spokes of the Court Intervention Program are rolling by the end of 2024.
The overall goal is a more nuanced and regulated system that allows the courts to apply customized intervention plans for each defendant, one that limits the risk they may pose while out on bond.
“The shoe that I’m trying to fit on you has to fit you in order to work. If I don’t fit you with the right prescription, I can do harm or it won’t have the best outcome,” Johnson said. “Some of the conduct, we’ll want to see them once a week. Otherwise you sit here (in jail) because the nature of what you’re charged with and the risk level you are, you’re going to be housed behind bars. Or you’re going to be housed in the community with electronic regulations and personal monitoring. … One way or another, we’re going to house you. If I can’t house you safely out in the community, then I’m going to house you with a bar.”