The Temporal Dimensions of Pretrial Detention: The Impact of a Cash Bail Reform on Time Detained

• In Event: The Impact of Bond Type and Other Factors on Pretrial Outcomes

Abstract

Around half a million individuals are held in pretrial detention on any given day in the United States. Most of these individuals are detained simply because they cannot afford bail, resulting in the implementation of cash bail reforms in numerous jurisdictions. This research seeks to move beyond a binary understanding of pretrial release to assess the impact of a cash bail reform on detention time. Using court data from Baltimore, Maryland, this study explores how a new cash bail rule impacts pretrial decision-making and subsequent patterns of pretrial release, utilizing a temporal measure of the number of days until pretrial release. This study also explores whether the reform had differential impacts by defendant race, as pretrial detention has been shown to exacerbate such disparities in later court outcomes. Overall, this research contributes to burgeoning literature that reframes court processes as complex, temporal processes.

Author

• Lydia Becker, University of Maryland