Christine Scott-Hayward and Henry F. Fradella, Punishing Poverty: How Bail and Pretrial Detention Fuel Inequalities in the Criminal Justice System (Berkeley: University of California Press 2019)

New Orleans in 2011 finds itself facing many of the same problems New York City faced in 1961 when the founders of the Vera Institute of Justice launched the Manhattan Bail Project: Too many people are held in pretrial detention who could be released without risk to public safety; the reliance on bail results in disparate outcomes based on financial ability; and the unnecessary detention of thousands of defendants each year imposes excessive costs on the city government and taxpayers, as well as on those needlessly detained. Vera is now working with New Orleans stakeholders to develop a comprehensive pretrial services system. Following in the footsteps of the Manhattan Bail Project, the work will create a carefully conceived and locally sensitive pretrial services system, one that will result in a fairer and more efficient criminal justice system and a safer community.

Download Full-text

Introduction to Special Issue: Misdemeanor Justice Project—A Focus on Criminal Justice System Responses to Lower Level Offenses

Criminal Justice Policy Review ◽

10.1177/0887403418766622 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 29 (6-7) ◽

pp. 527-535 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Preeti Chauhan ◽

Jeremy Travis

Keyword(s):

Criminal Justice ◽

Criminal Justice System ◽

Justice System ◽

Future Research ◽

Special Issue ◽

Legal Representation ◽

Pretrial Detention ◽

Court Processing ◽

The Impact ◽

Scholarly Attention

To date, the enforcement of lower level offenses and the criminal justice system’s response to these enforcement actions has received little scholarly attention. To address this gap in scientific research, the Misdemeanor Justice Project (MJP) commissioned nine scholarly papers focused on criminal justice responses to lower level offenses. Each of the papers in this volume is guided by one of four overarching themes, including officer discretion; the impact of lower level enforcement on individuals, communities, and institutions; pretrial detention and diversion; and court processing and legal representation. As a collection, these papers serve as a launching pad for the development of a body of research in a critical and opaque area of our criminal justice system as well as highlight areas for future research.

Download Full-text

Inclusion and Exclusion Through Risk-based Justice: Analysing Combinations of Risk Assessment from Pretrial Detention to Release

The British Journal of Criminology ◽

10.1093/bjc/azaa012 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 60 (4) ◽

pp. 1080-1097 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Gwen van Eijk

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Criminal Justice ◽

Criminal Justice System ◽

Justice System ◽

Risk Assessments ◽

Ethical Judgement ◽

Pretrial Detention ◽

Informed Decisions ◽

Distribution Of Resources ◽

Multiple Risk

Abstract As the use of risk-based practices has proliferated in many jurisdictions, justice-involved individuals are often subjected to multiple risk assessments at various moments and with different purposes as they move through the criminal justice system. This article examines the ways in which different risk-based practices are combined and evaluates these combinations in terms of inclusion and exclusion of marginalized offender categories. By understanding risk-based practices in terms of the distribution of resources, the article conceptualizes how the accumulation of bias could exacerbate exclusionary effects and how contradictory risk-informed decisions could undermine inclusionary interventions. Understanding the interplay of different risk-based practices is essential for the practical and ethical judgement of risk-based justice.

Download Full-text

The Acquittal (After Pretrial Detention) – a Rare but Fascinating Phenomenon of the Criminal Justice System

European Journal of Crime Criminal Law and Criminal Justice ◽

10.1163/15718174-02704004 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 27 (4) ◽

pp. 346-362

Author(s):

Peter J. Kurlemann ◽

Jörg Kinzig

Keyword(s):

Criminal Justice ◽

Criminal Justice System ◽

Criminal Law ◽

Justice System ◽

Research Team ◽

Multidisciplinary Approach ◽

Criminal Proceedings ◽

Pretrial Detention ◽

Different Parts

The acquittal leads – compared to other phenomena – a shadowy existence in German criminal law and criminological science. A research team from the Institute of Criminology in Tübingen investigated criminal proceedings where the accused were held in pretrial detention before eventually being acquitted and categorized and described the proceedings from various perspectives utilising a multidisciplinary approach. The article deals with the role of doubt in such proceedings and the way in which so-called “second class acquittals” are expressed in written judgements. Furthermore, this article, besides providing an overview of exemplary main results, aims to inspire the scholarly community to pay more attention to acquittal decisions taken in different parts of criminal procedures, also within a comparative perspective.

Download Full-text

Time, Money, and Punishment: Institutional Racial-Ethnic Inequalities in Pretrial Detention and Case Outcomes

Crime & Delinquency ◽

10.1177/0011128719881600 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 66 (6-7) ◽

pp. 837-863

Author(s):

Brandon P. Martinez ◽

Nick Petersen ◽

Marisa Omori

Keyword(s):

Criminal Justice ◽

Criminal Justice System ◽

Race And Ethnicity ◽

Justice System ◽

Discrete Event ◽

Ethnic Disparities ◽

Racial Inequalities ◽

Pretrial Detention ◽

Ethnic Stratification ◽

Racial Ethnic

While prior research finds that pretrial detention has downstream consequences for racial inequalities in conviction and sentencing, it is often conceptualized as a discrete event within the criminal justice system. This study instead argues that pretrial detention operates as a racial-ethnic stratification process across time. We assess whether temporal and monetary dimensions of pretrial produce and reinforce racial-ethnic disparities in pretrial and subsequent case outcomes. Results indicate that time and money significantly stratify defendants by race and ethnicity, where bond amounts increase time detained, and that time detained in turn reinforces racial inequalities in conviction and incarceration. Indicative of cumulative understandings of inequality, our study shows how time and money in pretrial detention perpetuate inequalities in the criminal justice system.

Download Full-text

Pretrial detention and alternate methods of securing the presence of the accused during the criminal procedure

Temida ◽

10.2298/tem0902049p ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 49-65

Author(s):

Jelena Perisic

Keyword(s):

Criminal Justice ◽

Criminal Justice System ◽

Justice System ◽

Major Part ◽

Criminal Procedure ◽

Reasonable Doubt ◽

Current Status ◽

Legal Regulations ◽

Pretrial Detention ◽

Procedure Codes

In this paper, the author discusses pretrial detention and alternate methods of securing the presence of the accused during the criminal procedure. Except issues of terminology, in the introduction to this paper, the author deals with the current status of our criminal justice system, the readiness of both the state and the criminal justice system to accept innovations. Further, the author examines the accordance of pretrial detention with international sources, then its correlations with the Constitution, Criminal Procedure Codes from 2001 and 2006, and types of pretrial detention. As the paper continues, it describes institutes that are alternatives of pretrial detention: home detention and other restriction orders, and bail. The paper follows with the definition and content of the reasonable doubt concept as a mandatory condition for pronouncing pretrial detention. The major part of the paper deals is dedicated to the discussion of legal regulations of pretrial detention and its misinterpretation by judicial apparatus, and the effort to explain some undefined parts of those regulations.

Download Full-text