Court and county staff update commissioners on bond‑review calendar and diversion hub plans

Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney and county strategy staff updated the Fulton County Board on early results from a bond‑review calendar and progress toward a diversion hub intended to resolve low‑level warrants and certain failures to appear.

McBurney said the bond‑review calendar, stood up about a month ago as a weekly Monday event, has exposed that the universe of defendants in jail solely because of relatively low bonds is smaller than initial estimates once cases are scrubbed for probation warrants, pending serious charges or other holds. "The universe of people who are sitting in the jail and the only thing holding them in jail is a relatively low bond" is smaller after scrubbing, he said, noting some cases were resolved on the spot by the bench, public defenders and the district attorney.

Strategy staff (Steve Naraki) told commissioners a draft standing order proposing real‑time low‑level warrant resolution had been submitted to state court, and the county is working with pretrial supervision and Department of Real Estate and Asset Management to locate the diversion hub near the jail campus. Commissioners pressed for precise counts — for example, how many people with $2,000 bonds also have murder or other no‑bond charges — and staff agreed to provide scrubbed figures at the next meeting or the one after so the public can understand the scale of the opportunity.

The board also discussed expanding the calendar to consider indicted non‑complex cases and coordination with other magistrates if the bench opts to send eligible matters to Judge Ashley for review. McBurney said the program currently has no direct county budget impact because Judge Ashley's time was carved from existing court duties.