Legislative Analysis
Phone: (517) 373-8080
PRETRIAL RISK ASSESSMENT TOOLS http://www.house.mi.gov/hfa
House Bill 5464 as introduced Analysis available at
Sponsor: Rep. Sarah L. Lightner http://www.legislature.mi.gov
Committee: Judiciary
Complete to 9-15-20
SUMMARY:
House Bill 5464 would amend the Code of Criminal Procedure to provide that only a
pretrial risk assessment tool that met specified criteria could be used by a court in a
determination as to whether to release a defendant in custody on bail. The bill would not
require a pretrial risk assessment tool to be used in making such a determination.
Pretrial risk assessment tool would mean a pretrial process that creates or scores
particular factors to estimate a defendant’s level of risk to fail to appear in court,
risk to commit a new crime, or risk posed to the community in order to make
recommendations as to bail or conditions of release based on that risk, whether
made on an individualized basis or based on a grid or schedule.
The bill would add a new section to Chapter V (Bail) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
If a court, in making a determination regarding admission to bail and any necessary
protective conditions for admission to bail, uses a pretrial risk assessment tool, the tool
would have to be shown to be valid after peer testing and to be free of biases. In addition,
after meeting those requirements, the tool still could not be used unless all of the following
applied to its use:
Public inspection. All documents, data, records, and information used by the builder to
build or validate the pretrial risk assessment tool, as well as ongoing documents, data,
records, and written policies outlining the usage and validation of the tool, would have
to be open to public inspection, auditing, and testing.
Review by parties. In a criminal case, if a court has considered or an expert witness has
relied upon a pretrial risk assessment tool, a party to the case would have to be entitled
to review all calculations and data used to calculate the defendant’s own risk score.
Discovery protections. In a criminal case, a builder or user of a pretrial risk assessment
tool would be prohibited from asserting trade secret or other intellectual property
protections to quash discovery of the materials required to be open to public inspection
as described above.
Proposed MCL 765.6e
House Fiscal Agency Page 1 of 2
FISCAL IMPACT:
House Bill 5464 would have no fiscal impact on the state but would have an indeterminate
fiscal impact on local trial courts. Costs would be incurred by local courts that do not have
a pretrial risk assessment tool that meets criteria established under the bill. Because the bill
does not include definitions of certain terms, it is not possible to assess which local units
currently meet requirements of the bill and which do not.
Legislative Analyst: Susan Stutzky
Fiscal Analyst: Robin Risko
■ This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency staff for use by House members in their
deliberations, and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.
House Fiscal Agency HB 5464 as introduced Page 2 of 2


Statutes affected:
House Introduced Bill: 760.1, 777.69