by Brooke Kaufman

According to a recent article from Fox KTVU, Contra Costa County, California, has contracted with Uptrust, a private technology company, to put an end to the practice of jailing defendants who fail to appear for a court mandated appointment.

Jacob Sills, the chief executive officer and cofounder of Uptrust, said many defendants who miss court dates do so because of financial issues or lack of transportation. According to Sills, the punishment for a failure to appear compounds injustices within the criminal justice system based on class lines.

“When people mess up on probation, they end up in prison,” Sills said in a phone interview with Fox KTVU. “The issues largely stem around poverty. That’s why they violate their probation. We are helping the system stay engaged with their clients.”

Recognizing that another impediment to defendants was a lack of communication from the court, Uptrust created an app that connects clients to a probation officer or the public defender’s office. The app accounts for reporting problems, ensuring that notices of bench warrants and jail time are communicated prior to a court date. Sills said the app “improves the quality of life” for both government staff and clients by limiting administrative hassle and the costs associated with public notification.

“Our job is to make everyone’s life easier,” said Sills, who added that clients (arraigned defendants) are not charged for using the app.

Contra Costa County, the first Bay Area adopter of the company’s app, has “annual contracts with Uptrust through September totaling $65,000,” according to county public defender Ellen McDonnell.

When a defendant fails to appear in court, the county incurs a cost of $847. This includes court time, arrest and booking time, and jail housing for the defendant. Although the county is unable to track the defendants who have benefited from Uptrust’s app, according to Blanca Hernandez, Contra Costa County public defender, only 77 defendants would have to make their court dates for the contract to have paid for itself.

Uptrust also received a total of $650,000 in grants from the Bernard J. Tyson Impact Fund, sponsored by the American Heart Association. Grant funding is awarded to community groups that fit the AHA search criteria.

“This grant funding gives significant money each year to organizations that show us they are doing measurable work toward making an impact addressing those underlying factors that make good health nearly impossible to achieve in some of our Bay Area communities,” said AHA spokesperson Donna Kato in a statement to Fox KTVU.

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