119-hr2669

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2669 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

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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