Madison County will soon be employing a pretrial risk assessment tool aimed at providing political cover to judges for granting free release to criminal offenders. These “black box” computer programs are supposedly able to predict whether or not an offender is dangerous to the public — taking away the judicial discretion of the court to keep the public safe. Catch & Release programs are now in vogue while crime victims take a back seat. Criminal offenders have never felt so loved.
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What does this mean?
This means no guarantee of appearance for those charged with criminal offenses. Don’t let the Madison County Public Defender’s Office fool you, Level 6 offenders do face jail time, that decision is made later.
Help us tell the courts, thanks but no thanks, you prefer to hold offenders accountable for their actions and not give them a free ride. Madison County will not be a sanctuary city for criminal offenders.