Recently, the legislature passed a measure to change how bail is determined in Wisconsin. It has passed twice in consecutive legislative sessions, which means that it will now head to our April ballot as a constitutional amendment. How bail is determined is critically...
bail
Bail reform is actually working, but the story isn’t getting through, especially in election season
By now you have almost certainly seen many election ads scaring people about any candidate who advocates bail reform. They are accused of wanting to put killers and rapists on the streets to commit more crime. Paired with sometimes misleading crime statistics, these...
Does releasing people before trial drive up crime rates?
When deciding who needs to remain in jail as they await trial, courts in most states should consider two things. First, is the person a danger to the community? If they are, pre-trial detention may be justified. Second, is the person a flight risk? In other words, how...
Innocent man held in jail for 3 years on DNA mix-up
When it comes down to it, one of the most unfair aspects of our criminal justice system may be that people are held before trial. Some of those people -- many of those people -- are completely innocent. Unfortunately, bail can be assessed in part on the apparent...
Wisconsin’s county jails are full of innocent people
According to the bipartisan nonprofit the Prison Policy Initiative, a third of all Wisconsin county jail inmates between 2009 and 2013 were locked up solely because they couldn't afford a low cash bail. In other words, they're behind bars before having been convicted...
What can we gain from pretrial risk assessments?
One of the great injustices in today's justice system is that so many people are punished long before they have been found guilty.They are punished by being kept in pretrial detention for months or even years, either because they were denied bail or because they could...
Study: Risk-assessment algorithms are fraught with racial bias
The Center for Court Innovation, a New York-based criminal justice reform agency, recently released a study on supposedly race-neutral risk assessment tools. These tools are widely used by courts to determine whether defendants should be granted bail or held in jail...
California just reformed its bail system
Should people be locked up for being unable to pay bail? More than 30 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court held that was unconstitutional. Bail is meant to incentivize people to show up at their court dates. But as we mentioned in a recent blog post, nearly half a...
American Bar Assn issues guidelines on ending debtor’s prisons
Over 30 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people who cannot afford their court fees or fines should never be locked up for their inability to pay. Yet across the country, nearly half a million people sit in jail awaiting trial -- often simply because they...