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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 2:39 am
Time: 2:39 am
Results for failure to appear
3 results foundAuthor: Bornstein, Brian H. Title: Reducing Courts’ Failure to Appear Rate: A Procedural Justice Approach Summary: Failure-to-appear (FTA) is a significant problem in the nation’s courts. This paper examines the effectiveness of using different kinds of written reminders to reduce misdemeanants’ FTA rates. Misdemeanants (n = 7865) in 14 Nebraska counties were randomly assigned to one of four conditions prior to their court date: no reminder (control), reminder-only, reminder with information on the negative consequences of FTA (reminder-sanctions), or reminder with information on sanctions as well as the procedural justice benefits of appearing (reminder-combined). A subset of defendants (n = 452) was also surveyed after their scheduled court date to assess their perceptions of procedural fairness (both in general and regarding participants’ specific court experience) and their level of trust/confidence in the courts. Reminders significantly reduced FTA overall, and more substantive reminders were significantly more effective than a simple reminder. Specifically, the FTA rate was 12.6% in the control condition, 10.9% in the reminder-only condition, 8.3% in the reminder-sanctions condition, and 9.8% in the reminder-combined condition. The FTA rate was higher for some categories of misdemeanors than others, and for defendants with multiple charges (15.4% if two or more charges, versus 5.4% for one charge). The baseline FTA rate was higher for Blacks (18.7%) than for Whites (11.7%) and Hispanics (10.5%), but this difference was not statistically significant when controlling for other factors such as number of offenses and type of offense. Survey results indicated that misdemeanants’ trust/confidence assessments, as well as their perceptions of procedural justice, were related to their appearance in court. Defendants who appeared in court had higher institutional confidence and felt they had been treated more fairly by the criminal justice system (means = 3.23 and 3.52, respectively, on a 5-point scale) than non-appearers (means = 3.02 and 3.23, respectively). Institutional confidence and procedural justice were themselves highly correlated. Defendants with low trust in the courts were less likely to appear than those with higher trust when there was no reminder, but this relationship was not statistically significant when there was a reminder. The study has important implications for public policy and pretrial services, such as improving system efficiencies and increasing criminal defendants’ perceptions of procedural justice. We recommend that courts, especially in larger jurisdictions, adopt a reminder program for defendants and engage in outreach to increase offenders’ trust/confidence. Details: Final Report to the U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2011. 62p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 1, 2011 at: http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/234370.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/234370.pdf Shelf Number: 121934 Keywords: Court DelaysCourt ProceduresCourts (U.S.)Failure to Appear |
Author: Phillips, Mary T. Title: Effect of Release Type on Failure to Appear - Final Report Summary: Prior research on bail making by the New York City Criminal Justice Agency (CJA) has documented the prevalence of commercial bonds in the City, described the costs and benefits of posting a commercial bond as opposed to cash bail, and identified case and defendant characteristics associated with each form of bail making (Phillips 2010a, 2010b, 2011a, 2011b). In the decades prior to this research New York City had nearly eliminated bail bonds from city jails, but the industry's huge nationwide growth since the early 1990s suggested that it was time to take another look. This research comes in the midst of an aggressive national campaign mounted by the bail bond industry, aimed at influencing public opinion and legislators around the country. At stake in many states is legislation that would protect the bail bond industry at the expense of pretrial agencies, which are viewed as competitors. Bondsmen argue that they are more successful than pretrial recidivism. This study addresses a part of that claim by comparing failure to appear (FTA) rates for defendants released on commercial bonds versus other types of release. This is the only contemporary research on the topic using New York City arrests, and the only study that controls for key factors that also affect FTA. Details: New York, NY: CJA New York City Criminal Justice Agency, Inc., 2011. 77p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed on January 31, 2012 at http://www.cjareports.org/reports/releasetype&fta.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.cjareports.org/reports/releasetype&fta.pdf Shelf Number: 123270 Keywords: Commercial Bail Bonds (New York City)Early ReleaseEvaluative StudiesFailure to Appear |
Author: Lowenkamp, Christopher T. Title: The Hidden Costs of Pretrial Detention Summary: In the criminal justice system, the time between arrest and case disposition is known as the pretrial stage. Each time a person is arrested and accused of a crime, a decision must be made as to whether the accused person, known as the defendant, will be detained in jail awaiting trial or will be released back into the community. But pretrial detention is not simply an either-or proposition; many defendants are held for a number of days before being released at some point before their trial. The release-and-detention decision takes into account a number of different concerns, including protecting the community, the need for defendants to appear in court, and upholding the legal and constitutional rights afforded to accused persons awaiting trial. It carries enormous consequences not only for the defendant but also for the safety of the community. Little is known about the impact of pretrial detention on pretrial outcomes and post-disposition recidivism. Some researchers and legal professionals believe there is a relationship between the number of days spent in pretrial detention and the defendant's community stability (e.g., employment, finances, residence, family), especially for lowerrisk defendants. Specifically, the defendant's place in the community becomes more destabilized as the number of days of pretrial detention increases. This destabilization is believed to lead to an increase in risk for both failure to appear and new criminal activity. While this purported relationship makes intuitive sense, there has been no empirical evidence in existence to support or refute this idea. Beyond the relationship between length of pretrial detention and pretrial outcomes, there is an additional underdeveloped area of research - the impact of pretrial detention on post-disposition recidivism. Using data from the Commonwealth of Kentucky, this research investigates the impact of pretrial detention on 1) pretrial outcomes (failure to appear and arrest for new criminal activity); and 2) postdisposition recidivism. Details: Houston, TX: Laura and John Arnold Foundation, 2013. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 23, 2013 at: http://arnoldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/pdf/LJAF_Report_hidden-costs_FNL.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://arnoldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/pdf/LJAF_Report_hidden-costs_FNL.pdf Shelf Number: 131701 Keywords: Failure to AppearPretrial Detention (Kentucky)Recidivism |