Legislative Services

Passed in the second special session of the 87th Legislature, Senate Bill 6 made significant changes to the bail bond system in Texas. SB 6 required the Office of Court Administration (OCA) to create a free "Public Safety Report System" (PSRS). The PSRS will generate reports for magistrates to consider when making bail decisions for defendants. The system will launch April 1, and magistrates are required to consider the Public Safety Report (PSR) before making a bail decision on Class B misdemeanors or higher offenses.

OCA contracted with the vendor Automon to provide the PSRS. Automon will host a series of virtual training seminars.  Participation is encouraged for representatives of all courts that will be required to use the PSRS pursuant to SB 6. According to OCA, "the training will cover system navigation, field functions, available forms, magistration tasks in the system, and more."

To participate in the training, each jurisdiction first needs to assign a local administrative user (LAU) for the PSRS. That LAU will be assigned administrative rights to add/remove other local users of the system. This will facilitate access to the system at a local level.

The LAU will need to complete an electronic PSRS User Registration Form so they can be set up in the system. Once the LAU's account is set up, OCA will send a notification with guidance from Automon on how to enter end users from their jurisdiction in the system. The LAU will then be able to set up the end-user accounts. OCA encourages that end users be set up before the training: "Having accounts set up in the PSRS before training will allow users to follow along and interact with the system during their live session." Training sessions will be provided from March 21 through March 31.

For more information on the PSRS and how to register for the Automon trainings, please visit OCA's website or contact bail@txcourts.gov.

Additional resources on SB 6 can be found in our 2021 Legislative Analysis Report or by visiting the Texas Justice Court Training Center's website.

For more information about this article, please contact Kelsey Bernstein.