Roundtable: Pretrial Justice Working Group: Reflections and Planning for the Future

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract/Description

At the 2018 Annual Meeting, ASC’s Pretrial Justice Working Group was formed. At the time, pretrial and bail reform efforts were surging nationwide. Since then, states and counties have continued changing their laws and are altering their practices in response to a groundswell of successful class-action litigation and grassroots pressure challenging the basic fairness, effectiveness, and constitutionality of existing pretrial processes and money bail procedures. At the same time, research in this area has blossomed and there is now a large body of rigorous research on various pretrial justice policies and practices that has helped inform ongoing policy discussions. For example, in 2022, three of the founding members of the working group edited a Handbook on Pretrial Justice, which has become a valuable resource for those researching and working in the field. This roundtable provides an opportunity to reflect on the achievements of the working group and its members over the last six years and consider what role the working group can play in the future. In particular, we will discuss how academics and researchers can continue to inform ongoing policy discussions with evidence-based research.

Sub Unit

• Area XIV. Roundtables

Chair

• Christine Scott-Hayward, California State University, Long Beach

Discussants

• Jennifer Copp, Florida State University

• Erin Eife, George Mason University

• Evan Marie Lowder, George Mason University

• Jennifer Peirce, Vera Institute of Justice

• Don Stemen, Loyola University Chicago

Organized by a Division or external group?

Pretrial Justice Working Group (ASC DCS)