CUYAHOGA

COUNTY MUNICIPAL COURTS

BEDFORD No comment.
A Berea Municipal Court representative said their court gather information
similar to what's evaluated in pretrial tools and are looking into adopting a
BEREA pretrial tool in their court.
Cleveland Municipal Court will start using the Arnold Foundation's public safety
CLEVELAND assessment August 21.

Unlike many local judges, Judge A Deane Buchanan expressed little interest in
adopting a pretrial toold. He said, "I'm comfortable with what we have. . .
because it works." He said he questions everyone who comes before about their
home environment and other factors similar to what's included in assessment
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS tools.

Maurise Sanders, Chief Personal Bailiff, said East Cleveland's municipal court
EAST CLEVELAND doesn't "have the staff or the budget" to implement a pretrial tool.

EUCLID No comment.

Judge Deborah Nicastro said she is "interested" in the Arnold Foundation tool,
but is waiting to see what impact it has on Cleveland's municipal court. She also
expressed concerned about having sufficient resources to implement the tool.
Unlike county courts, she said she doesn't have sufficient staff and believe it
GARFIELD HEIGHTS would be challenging to implement the tool without greatly increasing staff.

Judge Patrick Carroll said he is looking into using a pretrial tool, but is concerned
about the cost of implementing implementing a risk assessment. Like several
other municipal court judges, he said he already considers a lot of the factors in
LAKEWOOD the tools, like a defendant's criminal history and current charges.
Judge Mary Kay Bozza said the Arnold Foundation's assessment is "a great
process", but her municipal court doesn't have the money or resources to
implement this type of pretrial tool. Bozza said she currently sets bod based on
information from police, the probation department, court records, and her
LYNDHURST experience.

Judge Ken Spanagel said, "I dont use it now. Many of the things in it I already
ask and find out as part of my question and answer to determine bond in a
felony. Where do you work? Where do you live? How long have you lived there?
Who do you live with? Are you out on bond for anything else? " When it comes
to adopting the tool, Spanagel said he will wait to see what the Ohio Supreme
Court decides regarding pretrial tools. Spanagel is a member of the Ohio
Sentencing Commission. Its recent report recommended every court consider
using a pretrial tool.

PARMA
Judge Donna Congeni Fitzsimmons said she will evaluate the impact the tool has
in Cleveland Municipal Court. Fitzsimmons said she already considers "similar
factors" to what's used to evaluated defendants in the Arnold Foundation tool.
In an e-mail, Fitzsimmons wrote, "We are involved in committees that have been
set up to examine the subject of bail and therefore have attended programs that
enable us to use the Arnold Foundation as a pretrial risk assessment resource
and the Public Safety Assessment Tool that Cleveland Municipal Court will
employ. We are carefully watching CMC to observe their experience using that
tool and expanding their pretrial services monitoring personnel. We have
always used the criteria stated in the Public Safety Assessment (PSA) tool --
pretrial risk assessment that uses nine risk factors to assess the risk of new
criminal activity (NCA), including new violent criminal activity (NVCA), and failure
to appear (FTA) pending case disposition.
We do not have the funds to have a pretrial risk assessment department or even
ROCKY RIVER one employee who does that. "
SHAKER HEIGHTS The court does not currently use a pretrial tool, but plans to look into using one.

SOUTH EUCLID No comment.