GETTING PEOPLE OUT OF THE SYSTEM QUICKLY

Following an arrest, individuals experience a jail booking. When individuals remain in jail early in the case process, this can have cascading impacts on them and their case outcomes. These downstream consequences include a greater likelihood of a conviction, more likely to receive a jail/prison sentence, and more likely to receive a longer sentence. Importantly, Black, Latine and other racially minoritized individuals experience these downstream consequences at greater rates than their white peers. While courts have tried to address disparate outcomes, many of these efforts come after a person has sat in jail, pled guilty, or sentenced to prison. There is substantial room for improvement significantly earlier in the court process.

Funded in part by MacArthur foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) which aims to reduce the reliance on jails across the US, three jurisdictions around the country have begun leveraging public defender’s offices to help address disparities earlier in the process. At the point in the process where the judge makes a release decision – typically at the arraignment hearing, the judge considers the alleged charges, the initial facts presented by police, and the threat to community or victim safety. However, more recently, public defender offices are gathering more information about the individual prior to this hearing (e.g., information about their support system or behavioral health needs) and presenting it at the hearing as part of the list of information the judge considers for release. The hope is if judges have more information about a person and their situation, they may be more likely to release individuals and do so with smaller or no bail amounts and fewer or no conditions of release. Most importantly, these strategies may reduce disparate outcomes related to the number of Black, Latine, and racially minoritized individuals who remain in custody, who receive expensive bail amounts, and who receive restrictive conditions upon release. In this way, the process public defender’s offices are leading may be creating more meaningful initial appearances which may translate to positive outcomes such as increased pretrial release, increased bail modifications, charge reductions, dismissals, and reduced days in jail.

JSP is partnering with these three SJC partners – Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender in Cook County, Illinois; the Office of the Metropolitan Public Defender in Multnomah County, Oregon; and the Toledo Legal Aid Society in Lucas County, Ohio – to understand how each public defender implemented the new process, the local goals of the new process, and evaluate the impacts of the process especially related to reducing racial disparities at initial appearance.