Shelby Co. judicial commissioners will get more criminal background before setting bail: Mulroy

Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy and Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris Thursday morning said judicial commissioners, who oftentimes set bail for criminal defendants, will have additional information provided to them before setting bail.

The information, Mulroy said, will offer a deeper look at a defendant's criminal history, if there is one, and should help better ascertain which defendants are at a higher risk to re-offend.

Mulroy said that judicial commissioners can currently only see how many felonies or misdemeanors someone is charged with. It does not show what each of those alleged crimes or convictions are, nor the circumstances attached to them.

"It is possible for the judicial commissioners to find out that more detailed information orally over the phone by calling pretrial services, but I believe that there is no substitute for having full, complete information written down right in front of the judicial commissioner at the time they make their decision," Mulroy said at a press conference Thursday morning.

The additional information, which provides a look at a defendant's past criminal cases — including each of the charges, when the offense took place and the disposition of the case if it has reached a conclusion — will initially be used for only a select section of cases due to the labor-intensive nature of the report given to judicial commissioners, Mulroy said.

Mulroy also said the change would not impact the current standing bail order. When the current standing bail order was entered into, the county commission had to pass it before it took effect. The Shelby County DA's office does not set bail, but Mulroy and his staff often speak with people in the criminal justice system about potential policy changes.

Harris' office oversees the office of pretrial services, which will be providing the information to judicial commissioners.

"What you have today is a notice to the public that we're tightening the criminal justice system in Memphis and Shelby County," Harris said. "The result of this collaborative approach between the judicial commissioners and the DA and the office of pretrial services, what it will do is make sure that we're applying a tighter approach at the earliest stage of the criminal justice process."

Mulroy said he was not sure how many judicial commissioners had previously made the call to pretrial services for the added information about criminal history, but said that prosecutors in his office "all believe that it would definitely help to have all of these serious cases always have the information written in detail, written before them, so there are no slip-ups."

The change, should it be signed off on by the judicial commissioners, could go into effect as soon as Friday. It will first apply to cases in the V 11 program — any violent or sexual offenses, along with auto break-ins — but Mulroy said he spoke with recently appointed judicial commissioner head Judge Lee Wilson, and he was open to expanding to every defendant once "we get the logistics ironed out."

When asked if the new information with bail-setting could expand jail populations, Mulroy said that would "have to be decided down the road, if it, in fact, becomes a capacity issue."

"Right now, I'm focused on the immediate problem of making sure that public safety is adequately considered at this crucial early stage, and we'll deal with the rest later," Mulroy said.

After the press conference, in a phone call interview with The Commercial Appeal, Mulroy said the additional information could cut both ways, acting as a way to also assess who might not be a high risk for re-offending.

"We want to eliminate both false positives and false negatives," Mulroy said. "We want to not detain people who are not a risk of re-offense unnecessarily and we also want to make sure we do detain people who are. My primary focus has been to make sure that the bail determinations aren't too lenient to ensure that there aren't any re-offenses, particularly violent offenses, while out on bail. But, depending on the facts, that could cut both ways."