Assessing The Impact Of County-Level Factors On Pretrial Detention Decisions

• In Event: Pretrial Processing and the Right to Bail

Abstract

Recent scholarship has devoted growing interest to the causes and consequences of pretrial detention. One consistent finding that emerges from the sentencing literature is the influential importance that pretrial detention has on imprisonment decisions. However, results have been mixed concerning the relative importance of county-level factors on sentencing decisions of individuals. The inconsistencies may be a result of the county-level factors impacting an alternative stage during the case flow of a defendant. As scholars have argued, sentencing decisions are typically a result of previous judgments during case processing. That is, bail decisions influence pretrial length, which factors into defendants’ likelihood to submit a guilty plea, in turn affecting the type of sentence and sentence length handed down. Therefore, county-level factors may indirectly impact sentencing decisions through the influence they place on pretrial detention decisions. Using data from the State Court Processing Statistics, the current study attempts to address how and when county-level factors, measured by racial and economic demographics, as well as local court processes and structures, influence the magnitude of pretrial detention decisions. The implications regarding judicial and court policy will be discussed.

Author

• Joshua H. Williams, University of Missouri - St. Louis