BEND, OR -- Deschutes County Circuit Court is adjusting its bail rules to align with new state law, beginning July first. Presiding Judge Wells Ashby says it eliminates the use of bail schedules which mandated how much someone paid to be released while awaiting trial, "The goal was to move toward more equity in who’s being held at the jail, certainly pre-trial, while also maintaining community safety, pre-trial."

The change is to comply with SB 48, passed by the Oregon Legislature earlier this year. It recognizes the Supreme Court’s 1987 ruling that detention prior to trial should be a “carefully limited exception.”

After a person is arrested, the jail will use the crime category and any overriding factors to decide whether a person is a good candidate to be released on their own recognizance or should be booked until they see a judge, "There will be either a Sheriff’s deputy or a release assistance officer who will look at the crime charged, look at some of the overriding circumstances," Judge Ashby tells KBND News, "So, if it’s a DUI, they could be released on sobriety conditions; but if they got a DUI the week before, they’re going to be held to see the judge. And that’s when those overriding circumstances are important."

Some may still have to post bail - or “security.” Ashby says, "It doesn’t eliminate it altogether, and there’s an important middle category, which is ‘release on conditions.’ Those conditions could be no victim contact, no consumption of intoxicants, but it still allows for security."

He says the hope is to stop dangerous people from being released too quickly, "Cash bail systems really favor people with cash. And that’s a very crude measure of crime seriousness - so, typically, the more serious the crime, the higher the amount required to post to be released - there are some people who can really post any amount. Or, it’s much easier for people of means to post security in cases. And that doesn’t necessarily reflect the risk they pose to the community."