For most of this country's history, pretrial release conditions have been defined almost exclusively in financial terms, that is, the amount of bail a defendant or his surety was required to pledge to assure the defendant's appearance in court. During the 1960's, bail reform resulted in the implementation of various forms of nonfinancial release conditions designed to assure court appearance. The expanded use of pretrial release coincided with increasing public concern over crime and the introduction of additional mechanisms to limit pretrial release. As a result of these factors, there is now a range of pretrial release options. The evolution of pretrial release in Texas has followed many of the national trends, although the State has, to date, not adopted all of the nonfinancial alternatives. Furthermore, many local jurisdictions have not yet implemented the nonfinancial release mechanisms that have been approved at the State level. This article describes the experiences of one local Texas jurisdiction in instituting a nonfinancial release mechanism in an effort to relieve jail overcrowding. 214 notes