Justice in Development: Process and Punishment in Arraignment Courts in the United States, Colombia and Mexico

• In Event: The Practice of Justice: New Methods and Meanings to Think About Fairness, Equity and Efficiency in the Courts

Abstract

Most criminal cases in the United States begin and end in arraignment courts. Cases are routinely shaped through a variety of proceedings and protocols ranging from charging and bail decisions, to plea bargaining, sanctions and referrals to social services. Despite their saliency however, researchers have not systematically explored how arraignment courts operate in an era of mass incarceration, how their operation, processing of cases, and outcomes vary across defendants, jurisdictions and relative engagement of other courtroom actors—e.g. prosecutors, defense attorneys. This paper contributes to this topic by examining how arraignments work in two jurisdictions in the United States —Bronx, NY, and Jersey City, NJ—and pairs of similar courts in Colombia and Brazil. More specifically, we use systematic social observation to explore variation within and across countries in the relative use of detention, the rhetoric of punishment, and the broader social and technocratic organization of the courts.

Authors

• Andres Rengifo, Rutgers University

• Morgan McCallin, Rutgers University