NCJ Number
84640
Date Published
1982
Length
14 pages
Annotation
Data from Federal district courts with pretrial service agencies shows that these districts have reduced both crime among offenders while on bail and the failure-to-appear rate.
Abstract
Detailed information is provided on eastern and southern New York, northern Texas, and eastern Michigan, and aggregate data are provided on the other districts with pretrial service agencies for 1978, 1979, and 1980. Pretrial service agencies interview defendants, verify information about them, make bail recommendations to judicial officers, supervise defendants released to their custody, and help selected defendants obtain needed social services. The four districts isolated for indepth study have shown consistent increases in release-on-bail rates since 1978, while release rates in the 10 districts as a whole have shown small declines. There have also been consistent declines in the new crime and failure-to-appear rates for the total defendant population and for drug defendants; the new crime rate has decreased from 6 percent in 1978 to 3.9 percent in 1980, and the failure-to-appear rate has decreased from 3.6 percent to 1.3 percent for the same period. While data on the results of bail decisions are not generally obtainable from district without pretrial service agencies, data from one of those districts, southern Florida, show a doubling of failure-to-appear rates in recent years. The findings suggest that pretrial service agencies are having positive effects on the bail process.