§ 3153 — Organization And Administration Of Pretrial Services

(1) With the approval of the district court, the chief pretrial services officer in districts in which pretrial services are established under section 3152(b) of this title shall appoint such other personnel as may be required. The position requirements and rate of compensation of the chief pretrial services officer and such other personnel shall be established by the Director with the approval of the Judicial Conference of the United States, except that no such rate of compensation shall exceed the rate of basic pay in effect and then payable for grade GS–16 of the General Schedule under section 5332 of title 5, United States Code. (2) The chief pretrial services officer in districts in which pretrial services are established under section 3152(b) of this title is authorized, subject to the general policy established by the Director and the approval of the district court, to procure temporary and intermittent services to the extent authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code. The staff, other than clerical staff, may be drawn from law school students, graduate students, or such other available personnel. (b) The chief probation officer in all districts in which pretrial services are established under section 3152(a) of this title shall designate personnel appointed under chapter 231 of this title to perform pretrial services under this chapter. (1) Except as provided in paragraph (2) of this subsection, information obtained in the course of performing pretrial services functions in relation to a particular accused shall be used only for the purposes of a bail determination and shall otherwise be confidential. Each pretrial services report shall be made available to the attorney for the accused and the attorney for the Government. (2) The Director shall issue regulations establishing the policy for release of information made confidential by paragraph (1) of this subsection. Such regulations shall provide exceptions to the confidentiality requirements under paragraph (1) of this subsection to allow access to such information— (A) by qualified persons for purposes of research related to the administration of criminal justice; (B) by persons under contract under section 3154(4) of this title; (C) by probation officers for the purpose of compiling presentence reports; (D) insofar as such information is a pretrial diversion report, to the attorney for the accused and the attorney for the Government; and (E) in certain limited cases, to law enforcement agencies for law enforcement purposes. (3) Information made confidential under paragraph (1) of this subsection is not admissible on the issue of guilt in a criminal judicial proceeding unless such proceeding is a prosecution for a crime committed in the course of obtaining pretrial release or a prosecution for failure to appear for the criminal judicial proceeding with respect to which pretrial services were provided.