The first business day after a long holiday weekend is usually a busy time for a courthouse, with a high number of people facing fresh criminal charges.

This year in Deschutes County Circuit Court was no different, as Judge Wells Ashby heard 57 new cases at the court’s afternoon in-custody arraignment hearing, typically when defendants make their first court appearance.

The group on Tuesday included those accused of similar offenses, like shoplifting, drunken driving and domestic violence. But it’s likely the names and faces would have been a lot different just a week earlier.

That’s because Tuesday was the first weekday after the implementation of Senate Bill 48, a law passed by the Oregon Legislature in 2021 that tossed out and replaced Oregon’s cash bail system. Justice officials who spent months puzzling over how to implement the law say it could lead to lower jail inmate populations and a higher concentration of dangerous people held in jail.

Under the state’s old cash bail system, essentially, criminal offenses were assigned a bail amount, and those inmates who could afford to pay were released before their first hearing before a judge.

SB 48 establishes three tiers of criminal offenses, plus the idea of overriding circumstances for judges to consider in determining if the inmate is a higher risk to not attend a hearing or harm a victim.

For instance, an inmate could come in on a Tier 2 offense like drunken driving. Prior to SB 48, they’d have probably been allowed to post bail and be released with conditions. But under the new law, that suspected drunken driver could be held in custody a little longer if several overriding circumstances apply. These include if that person has a pending criminal case or if the individual is on probation or parole.

Under the new law, that defendant has to be held until seeing a judge.

“If a person gets arrested for a DUI and they’ve had five DUIs in the past year, that’s probably more concerning than if a person gets arrested for a DUI and they’re not on any kind of probation or parole and they haven’t had a DUI in the past 12 months,” Ashby said.

Another overriding issue is being unable or unwilling to participate in the release process. This could be because of a mental health issue or significant intoxicant impairment.

Those accused of Tier 3 crimes, including violent felonies or sex crimes, cannot be released until they see a judge. And generally, those accused of Tier 1 crimes — most misdemeanor crimes not committed against a person — are released.

Passed in 2021, a main goal of the bill is move away from a system where people pay to be released from jail.

“What this is trying to is do is have the system be less resource-driven and more offense-driven,” Ashby said.

Martha Walters, chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, afforded some latitude to circuit courts to implement the law at a local level. This year, presiding judges around the state and local stakeholders have been meeting to determine how to implement SB 48.

“This needs to be a functional document. It’s not just a decree,” Ashby said

In Deschutes County, the role of the court’s lone release assistance officer will change. Prior to the law change, this employee conducted interviews with every inmate prior to the first meeting with a judge about certain factors judges typically consider in determining if the inmate represents a risk — a risk of failure to return to court, to re-offend or to harm a victim. The employee then prepared a two-page summary for the judge to review.

Some counties like Lane and Multnomah have had robust assistance officer programs in place for years, which Ashby said has to do with court culture as well as limited jail space in more urban counties. Many counties have no release assistance officers at all.

Now, under the new law, those inmates who are released are instructed to call pretrial services, a division of the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, which will go over their release conditions, which include provisions like no alcohol in cases where alcohol is involved.

“So instead of being held pre-trial, you’re being supervised pre-trial,” Ashby said.

The role of implementing SB 48 will fall largely to the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the jail, and which last week was contending with 11 vacancies in sworn positions at the jail.

The sheriff’s office declined to make an employee available for an interview. A spokesman for the sheriff’s office, Sgt. Jayson Janes, wrote in an email it’s still too early to know how the new law will affect the jail population.

“Staffing issues are not new, and we have been able to maintain adequate services in the jail,” Janes wrote.

On Friday, there were 210 inmates in the jail. The average daily population in 2020 was 172 inmates. In 2021, the average was 161.

In 2020 3,841 people were booked in the jail. In 2021 4,037 people were booked into the jail.

Since Jan. 1 this year, 2,764 people have been booked into the jail.

Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel predicts eventually, the local jail will hold fewer inmates as a result of SB 48, but will have a higher concentration of dangerous ones.

“This is a great system,” Hummel said. “If you’re dangerous, it doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, and if you’re not dangerous, it doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor.”

But no one knows for sure, Ashby said. Jail populations could remain at historic levels, and the local order can always be tweaked.

“It’s a pretty limited data set,” Ashby said. “But I certainly felt like on my one day I spoke to the inmate population since the law passed (Tuesday), that it was an appropriate population.”