The article conspicuously does not mention practice in other countries. Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, and Scotland all have legal systems and cultures closely related to that of the US, and could potentially be the somewhere which has done a better job of handling the accused pre-trial.

I just dug a wee bit. Caruso (author) is in the UK, an academic studying this issue. My bad for assuming he's in the States.

I do have specific hard on for authors and journalists advocating reforms. For the love of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (god), point your audience to local orgs.

I've been to so many seminars, book tour events, etc. Every one present is already on board. They showed up because they want to do something, want to be around other people who also care.

I just learned this issue is on the CA State 2020 ballot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_California_Proposition_25 (h/t SSC.)

Seems noteworthy?

Advocating a Yes vote is a simple, concrete call to action.

Seems reasonable?

Inevitable HN critiques of each new boutique bespoke programming language and text editor du jour is poor landing page, missing screenshots, and example code buried in some wiki.

How is this any different?

Pretrial Services Association doesn't even get named. Just some links 1/2 down the article.

For other future dummies, like myself, who've actually organized and passed legislation, here's a draft TLDR:

Our pretrial cash bail system sucks. Especially for the poor. There's lots of negative knockoff effects. Here's an explainer [article], [wiki], and [video]. After 60 years of talking about reform, we need a plan.

We advocate adopting the federal Pretrial Services Agency (psa.gov) risk assessment system nationwide. Like DC and NJ did 20+ years ago. They've proven effective, costs less to administer, is more fair, and leads to better outcomes. Link to impressive metrics [here].

Here's how you can help. Support your state or county based org, listed [here].

Your state not listed? No worries. Here's a [simple guide] to bootstrap an org for your state. With handy links to [model legislation], [resolutions], and [talking points].

Please [contact us] our national campaign for additions, corrections, and questions.

--

Edit: Aha. This Harvard workbook doesn't suck. http://cjpp.law.harvard.edu/assets/BailReform_WEB.pdf It even has model legislation. Perfect for the target audience (legislative aides). Great starting point for creating a workbook for dummies, err, activists, like myself.