Philadelphia Revisited: An Examination of Bail and Detention Two Decades after Foote

Abstract

After nearly two decades of reform efforts, bail and pretrial detention have remained controversial-in some instances because of a move toward embracing preventive detention more openly, while in others because of attempts to outlaw the role of the commercial bondsman in pretrial release. This article refocuses on a landmark study of bail in Philadelphia by Caleb Foote in 1954 and contrasts its findings with a 1977 study conducted in the same city. The second study, although not designed as a replication of Foote's study, offers an opportunity to gauge the progress of reform over two decades. The conclusion is that, in spite of noticeable improvement in bail and release procedures, a number of issues defined so sharply by Foote in 1954 remained unresolved today.