Pretrial services programs face special challenges in gathering information about a defendant's mental health history, and assisting people with mental illness who may have difficulty understanding or fulfilling conditions of pretrial release. The Consensus Project recommends information-gathering strategies that balance the rights of the defendant and the needs of the court, and suggests how pretrial services programs can work together with the mental health system to effectively supervise those defendants who are released pretrial.

Though the Consensus Project encourages a systemic approach to improving the criminal justice system response to people with mental illness, we recognize the need for pretrial services staff to focus on the issues that most directly pertain to their roles. To that end, we recommend that pretrial services staff focus on the following sections: