A comprehensive bail reform bill passed by New Hampshire’s state legislature last week will transfer certain responsibilities from bail commissioners to a newly-established magistrate position, require that people charged with any of 12 violent felonies go before a judge or magistrate rather than a bail commissioner, and create a statewide bail tracking system.

The changes are the culmination of a bipartisan, multi-year legislative effort to respond to issues that arose following a 2018 change to the bail system.  

The change was intended to ensure that people weren’t held in jail solely because they couldn’t afford their bail, but it had the effect of forcing bail commissioners to release people who “probably shouldn’t have been released as quickly” and went on to be re-arrested, according to Sen. Donna Soucy, a Manchester Democrat and a leader in crafting the bail reform package.

In Manchester, for example, over a one-year period spanning from March 2023 to 2024, 26 percent of those arrested were out on bail, Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais said at an April hearing on the bill.

Currently, anyone charged with a crime may elect to go before a bail commissioner, who often must make a bail decision without complete information about the alleged crime, the individual’s arrest record, and whether they have pending charges, according to Soucy.

“What we've discovered over time is that there was a real inconsistency in the application of our bail laws,” Soucy said in an interview Friday.

The new law – which, if signed by Gov. Chris Sununu, would go into effect in stages starting on July 1 – requires that an individual must go before a judge or magistrate rather than a bail commissioner if they are charged with first or second-degree assault; felony level domestic violence; aggravated sexual assault; felonious sexual assault; kidnapping; felony-level stalking; human trafficking; robbery; or possession, manufacturing, or distribution of child sexual abuse images or child pornography.

The magistrate positions were established to ensure that the transfer of bail hearings away from bail commissioners would not create a backlog for hearings. The bill entitles those arrested to a bail hearing within 24 hours. To accommodate this, the magistrates would be available on weekends and holidays, and would be able to hold hearings both in-person and remotely.  

The magistrates would be appointed by the chief justice of New Hampshire’s Supreme Court and would be required to have a law license.

The number of magistrates was a sticking point between the two chambers of the legislature: the Senate proposed three, while the House proposed 10. In the end, the bill calls for three magistrates, and gives the judicial branch the option of requesting two more. The cost of the magistrates has yet to be determined.

The bill also appropriates $1.7 million to develop a bail-tracking system, something that most states already have. At the moment, there is no real-time system in New Hampshire to access an individual’s current bail status, according to Soucy.

If signed into law, the bill would establish a judicial training coordinator position and would require judges, magistrates, bail commissioners, and other court staff to undergo a training program about the bail process.

It would also create witness notification requirements when people accused of certain crimes are released on bail, and would increase compensation for bail commissioners, who are paid on a per-hearing basis.

The bill passed the Senate unanimously and the House in a voice vote, and received bipartisan and bicameral praise.

“Fixing our bail system has been a priority for the Senate for several years, and thankfully for the safety of our state and residents, we have come to a solution this year,” outgoing Senate President Jeb Bradley, a Wolfeboro Republican, said in a statement. “This bill fixes what was broken about our existing system, where violent criminals would commit offenses and then immediately be released on the street to commit new crimes.”

“The improvements in this bill will ensure our law enforcement have the best technology, judicial infrastructure, and statutory authority to keep our communities safe,” said Rep. Linda Harriott-Gathright, a Nashua Democrat and the ranking member of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.