Six months ago, David Magura, the court administrator for Youngstown Municipal Court, was walking into work when he heard three police officers talking about the city’s new pretrial program. The officers opined that the changes would lead to mass releases, endangering the public. Magura, who had been at the helm of the enhancements to the program, stayed quiet. But another officer, who had served as a law enforcement representative in the group of 28 people responsible for hashing out the system’s final details, stepped in. He explained that Youngstown’s previous approach was not working and that the new focus on making individualized release decisions was a more effective and fair way to support community well-being and safety.
“It was really cool,” remembered Magura. “Instead of it just being me and a judge talking about it, we now have people on the policy team that have ownership, and they’re able to have these conversations.”
Youngstown’s pretrial improvements are advancing more informed and individualized pretrial decisions. And for the first time, system stakeholders—including police officers, judges, prosecutors, and criminal defense lawyers—are collaborating in ways the city has never seen before.
“I’ve been working in this community for 15 years. I cannot think of a single project that garnered this type of collaboration among so many different entities,” said Magura.
Youngstown’s path to success started in 2020, when APPR accepted the city’s application to become a Learning Site, alongside Douglas County, Nebraska; Miami-Dade County, Florida; Williamson County, Texas; and Wake County, North Carolina. The program offers each site 24 months of technical assistance as they identify effective and fair improvements to pretrial policies and practices.