relative to criminal pre-trial services and monitoring.

This bill requires courts and counties in New Hampshire to cover the cost of pretrial electronic monitoring for indigent defendants if their cases end without a conviction. It defines an indigent defendant as someone unable to pay for these services and mandates that facilities consider a defendant's ability to pay when setting fees. Under the new rules, defendants who do not pay for their own monitoring and whose cases conclude without a conviction will not be required to reimburse the government for the equipment or its use. The legislation also establishes a process for courts to estimate costs and report annually to the legislature on how many indigent defendants receive this monitoring.