[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2669 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2669
To establish a new Justice Department grant program to reduce the
number of individuals incarcerated in local jails, reduce the number of
days individuals are incarcerated in local jails, and support
community-led local justice reinvestment.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 7, 2025
Mr. Bell (for himself, Mr. Cleaver, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr.
Figures, Mrs. McIver, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Mr. Bishop, Mr. Thompson
of Mississippi, Mr. Thanedar, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr. Ivey, Ms.
Norton, Ms. Ansari, Ms. Crockett, and Ms. Wilson of Florida) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To establish a new Justice Department grant program to reduce the
number of individuals incarcerated in local jails, reduce the number of
days individuals are incarcerated in local jails, and support
community-led local justice reinvestment.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Community First Pretrial Reform
Act'' or the ``Community First Act''.
SEC. 2. GRANTS AUTHORIZED.
(a) Grants Authorized.--The Attorney General, acting through the
Bureau of Justice Assistance, shall make grants to eligible
partnerships for purposes of reducing the number of individuals in
jails operated by units of local government and the number of days such
individuals spend in jail as follows:
(1) Grants for analysis and planning, which shall be used
to--
(A) collect and analyze local criminal justice and
incarceration data, including data on equity
disparities; and
(B) develop a strategic, collaborative plan to
decrease local jail incarceration that shall be public
facing.
(2) Grants for implementation of the plan described in
paragraph (1)(B) and which may be used for activities to reduce
the number of individuals incarcerated in local jails and to
reduce the number of days that individuals are so incarcerated
including--
(A) reducing the use of cash bail;
(B) reducing revocations of conditional release;
(C) creating or increasing the availability of
pretrial services, including efforts undertaken in
collaboration with community-based organizations and
nonprofits;
(D) investing in case processing and processes to
reduce overall time to disposition and time between
court events;
(E) ensuring early assignment of counsel and
presence of counsel at individuals' first court
appearance or bail hearing;
(F) providing training to various actors within the
criminal justice system on indigent defense that is
aligned with best practices in the field;
(G) creating or expanding diversion programs that
do not require an individual to enter into a guilty
plea and do not use incarceration as a sanction for
noncompliance--
(i) at the pre-arrest phase;
(ii) at the pre-booking phase; and
(iii) at the post-booking phase; or
(H) any other emerging, promising, or evidence-
based practices that an eligible partnership proposes
and the Attorney General deems likely to reduce local
jail incarceration.
(b) Eligible Partnership.--An eligible partnership is a partnership
between not less than two of the following:
(1) A unit of local government.
(2) A territory.
(3) An Indian tribe.
(4) A nonprofit organization.
(c) Application.--An application for a grant shall include the
following:
(1) Details of the range of pretrial services available
within the jurisdiction where the jail being targeted for
incarceration rate reduction under this Act is located.
(2) A plan to ensure that individuals in pretrial contact
with the justice system will be subject to the least
restrictive conditions or combination of conditions necessary
to reasonably address the imminent risk of willful flight or
the risk of imminent threat of serious physical harm to a
reasonably identifiable person.
(3) A plan for ongoing process evaluation and outcome
evaluation.
(4) Either--
(A) data--
(i) disaggregated by key demographic
indicators, including factors such as community
background and identity, on incarceration for
correctional facilities within the local
jurisdiction for each of the last five calendar
years that includes----
(I) the average daily population;
(II) the percentage of individuals
held pretrial and post-conviction; and
(III) the average length of stay
for individuals held pretrial and post-
conviction; and
(ii) disaggregated by key demographic
indicators on arrests made by all law
enforcement entities operating within the local
jurisdiction over each of the last five
calendar years; or
(B) in the event that elements of such
incarceration or arrest data are not able to be
compiled and reported, a comprehensive plan to obtain
as much of the unavailable data as possible within the
first year of the award.
SEC. 3. REQUIREMENTS.
(a) In General.--Grantees shall--
(1) consult in all phases of planning, implementation, and
evaluation with municipal, county, and State law enforcement
agencies, courts in the local jurisdiction, public defense
organizations and criminal defense practitioners in the local
jurisdiction, local substance use and mental health
authorities, local community members, local community members
who have been justice-involved, and community-based
organizations and service providers;
(2) analyze local jail incarceration and arrest data to
identify the drivers of jail incarceration and equity
disparities and ground jail population reduction strategies in
that data;
(3) reduce incarceration rates by no less than 5 percent
the first year of an implementation grant, 10 percent in each
subsequent year, and 50 percent by the end of the grant period;
(4) in consultation with the Bureau of Justice Assistance--
(A) adopt and implement a methodology for measuring
equity disparities in jail incarceration;
(B) set goals for the reduction of equity jail
incarceration disparities; and
(C) decrease levels of incarceration across all
races and ethnicities;
(5) engage an external evaluator to coordinate data
collection and reporting in an ongoing fashion and perform both
a process and outcome evaluation, with support from the Bureau
of Justice Assistance; and
(6) use financial savings created through decreased
incarceration to sustain programmatic and community-based
efforts to reduce jail incarceration.
(b) Grant Oversight Requirement.--
(1) In general.--If a grantee fails to meet the
incarceration rate and equity disparities reduction
requirements under subsection (a)(3) in any year of the award,
the Bureau of Justice Assistance shall perform an audit of the
use of their award and the grantee shall implement new
strategies based on that audit. If a grantee fails to meet the
incarceration rate and equity disparities reduction
requirements under subsection (a)(3) in any two consecutive
years of the award, the Attorney General shall terminate the
award.
(2) Modification authority.--The Bureau of Justice
Assistance may grant a modification to the incarceration rate
reduction requirement under subsection (a)(3) if the Bureau
determines after an audit that the failure to meet the
incarceration rate reduction requirement was caused by an
increase in population in the covered jurisdiction. If a
grantee fails to meet the modified reduction requirements in
any two subsequent years of the award, the Attorney General
shall terminate the award.
SEC. 4. GRANT AMOUNTS.
(a) Planning Grants.--A grant under section 2(a)(1) may be for not
more than $100,000 for a single grantee, and shall be for a term of 1
year.
(b) Implementation Grants.--A grant under section 2(a)(2) shall be
for a term of 6 years, and shall be structured as follows:
(1) For the first year of the grant term, an amount shall
be disbursed that is to be not less than $500,000 and not more
than $3,000,000, contingent upon acceptance of a grantee's
proposed budget for activities under the grant, which may be
subject to revision during the award process.
(2) Award amounts shall decrease annually by--
(A) 10 percent in the second year;
(B) 15 percent in the third year;
(C) 20 percent in the fourth year; and
(D) 25 percent in the fifth year.
(3) Award amounts during the sixth year of the award may
not be used for programmatic activities and shall support only
program evaluation and the drafting of a final report, and such
funds shall be available to the grantees until expended.
SEC. 5. SELECTION PRIORITY.
In selecting grantees, the Attorney General shall--
(1) give priority to applicants from jurisdictions with the
highest incarceration rates that are not already in decline and
whose applications contain the most ambitious and attainable
plans for reducing that rate;
(2) give additional priority to applicants from
jurisdictions seeking to use funds under this Act to prevent
the local government from expanding the number of beds in local
correctional facilities;
(3) for any year in which there will only be one new or
ongoing award, ensure that a small metropolitan, micropolitan,
or noncore area is the recipient of the award;
(4) for any year in which there will be more than one new
or ongoing award, ensure that small metropolitan, micropolitan,
or noncore areas are the recipients of at least two awards; and
(5) for any year in which there will be three or more new
or ongoing awards, ensure that no more than one large central
metropolitan area is a recipient of an award.
SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) The term ``conditional release'' means probation,
parole, supervised release, home confinement, community
supervision, and other practices under which an individual is
supervised in the community by the criminal justice system and
may be incarcerated if found in violation of the conditions of
their release.
(2) The term ``diversion'' means a program or practice
that--
(A) places individuals who come into contact with
the criminal justice system into alternative processes
outside the standard scope of criminal justice
processing; and
(B) reduces an individual's involvement in the
criminal justice system in both the short and long
term.
(3) The term ``emerging practice'' means a program or
practice--
(A) with initial implementation resulting in
decreased local jail incarceration in one or more
communities; and
(B) that will be evaluated through a well-designed
and rigorous study.
(4) The term ``evidence-based practice'' means a program or
practice that--
(A) is demonstrated to be effective when
implemented with fidelity;
(B) is based on a clearly articulated and
empirically supported theory;
(C) has measurable outcomes relevant to reducing
jail incarceration, including a detailed description of
the outcomes produced in a particular population,
whether urban or rural; and
(D) has been scientifically tested and proven
effective through randomized control studies or
comparison group studies and with the ability to
replicate and scale.
(5) The term ``micropolitan area'' has the meaning
established under the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention's (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the
``CDC'') National Center for Health Statistics Urban-Rural
Classification Scheme for Counties.
(6) The term ``small metropolitan area'' has the meaning
established under the CDC's National Center for Health
Statistics Urban-Rural Classification Scheme for Counties.
(7) The term ``noncore areas'' has the meaning established
under the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics Urban-
Rural Classification Scheme for Counties.
(8) The term ``post-booking diversion'' means a program or
practice that diverts individuals from formal criminal justice
system processing after formal intake processing into jail.
(9) The term ``pre-booking diversion'' means a program or
practice that diverts individuals from formal criminal justice
system processing prior to arrest or prior to formal intake
processing into jail.
(10) The term ``promising practice'' means a program or
practice that--
(A) is demonstrated to be effective based on
positive outcomes relevant to reducing jail
incarceration from one or more objective, independent,
and scientifically valid evaluations, as documented in
writing to the Attorney General; and
(B) will be evaluated through a well-designed and
rigorous study.
(11) The term ``equity disparities'' means an measurable
differences in outcomes, treatment, or access to services
within the criminal justice system that are correlated with
demographic factors such community background and identity.
SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There are authorized to be appropriated--
(1) $20,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2030
for planning grants; and
(2) $100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2030
for implementation grants, of which 10 percent of any
appropriated amount is reserved specifically for evaluation
activities.
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