Should Pre-Trial Release Programs Be Expanded?

Abstract

Bail ostensibly increases the likelihood that a defendant released from jail will appear in court. Because of the constitutional guarantees of freedom and pragmatic concerns for the increasing cost of housing defendants awaiting trial, federal, state, and local governments have experimented with a wide range of pre-trial release methods. This paper compares the rates of nonappearance of persons participating in a Pre-Trial Release Program with others who were disqualified from the program but released prior to trial. The findings indicate that while, overall, PTR participants have a statistically significant lower rate of nonappearance than non-participants, these differences are effectively limited to persons accused of traffic offenses and persons released on unsecured appearance bond. Policy recommendations include extension of pre-release supervision and application of simplified selectivity criteria.