Pretrial Release of Latino Defendants, Final Report

• NCJ Number: 223852
• Author(s): David Levin
• Date Published: 2008
• Length: 90 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2007-IJ-CX-0002
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research); Legislation/Policy Analysis

Annotation

This nationwide study examined whether Latino defendants were less likely to receive pretrial release than non-Latino defendants and whether Latino defendants in counties with a rapidly increasing Latino population were less likely to receive pretrial release than Latino defendants in counties where the Latino population was not rapidly increasing.

Abstract

The study found that Latino defendants were not less likely to receive pretrial release than other defendants; however, they were more likely to receive financial pretrial release than non-Latino defendants. Further, Latino defendants in counties with rapidly growing Latino population were not less likely to receive pretrial release than Latino defendants in counties where the Latino population was not rapidly increasing. Also, Latino defendants did not have different rates of placement into financial pretrial release, bail amounts set, or ability to make bail in relation to growth rates in a jurisdiction’s Latino population. The study recommends that future research analyze where and why Latinos are being placed on monetary bail disproportionately. It also recommends that judicial training programs include discussions of how various court jurisdictions are ensuring that Latino defendant are receiving pretrial dispositions similar to those received by White and African-American defendants. Multilevel analysis of the State Court Processing Statistics database for 1992-2004 was conducted in order to control for jurisdiction/county-level predictors of pretrial decisionmaking. Data sources for the jurisdictional predictors include the Uniform Crime Reporting Programs Index of Crimes Reported to Police by County, data series 1988-2004; Annual Survey of Jails, Jurisdiction-Level, 1988-2004; National Prosecutor Survey/Census for 1990-2001; and U.S. Census Bureau reports from the Quickfacts and State-County Online Factbook. Other data sources were the Bureau of Justice Statistics-National Center for State Courts State Court Organization reports and the Felony Defendants in Large Urban Counties, 1992-2002 reports. 12 tables and 131 references