About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


1 Terry-Ann Craigie & Ames Grawert, Bail Reform and Public Safety: Evidence from 33 Cities 1 (2024)

handle is hein.agopinions/blrmadpc0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Bail Reform and Public Safety Evidence from 33 Cities By Terry-Ann Craigie and Ames Grawert AUGUST 15, 2024 ore than a dozen jurisdictions across the country have curtailed the use of money bail over the past decade.1 But after violent crime rose sharply in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, many politicians, police leaders, and pundits were quick to blame bail reform.2 Claims that bail reform undermines public safety ultimately led to a series of rollbacks.3 In this study, we test those claims, evaluating how crime trends fared after the enactment of bail reform policies in cities across the country. To date, researchers have evaluated bail reform largely in individual cities or states, finding little if any evidence that these policies increased crime.4 This studyis the first to use data from dozens of jurisdictions nationwide to test bail reform's causal impact on crime trends. It compares major offenses from 2015 through 2021 in 22 cities that had in place some type of bail reform with 11 others that did not. The analysis first focuses on all major offenses across jurisdictions and then on specific types of crime. It also examines the impact of reforms according to whether they were implemented through legislation, court order, or changes in prosecutorial policy. Last, this study focuses on cities where research shows reforms had large effects on how and when bail was set. Ultimatelythis report finds no statistically significant rela- tionship between bail reform and crime rates. In other words, there is no reason to believe that bail reform has led to increased crime. This holds true even when focusing on major policy changes that have drawn public scrutiny, like those in New York and New Jersey. These findings add to a growing body of literature showing that bail reform is an unlikely explanation for recent trends in crime, whether increases or decreases. And they suggest that policymakers' recent focus on weakening bail reforms as a response to crime has been misguided - and a distraction from smarter and more promising ways to enhance public safety. Bail Reform and Recent Crime Trends People who have been arrested for a crime are presumed legally innocent until proven guilty. But they may never- theless be incarcerated while awaiting trial. One common way they can gain release during this pretrial period is through money bail: a pledge of cash or a bond forfeited if they break the conditions under which they have been released. (Common conditions include limitations on travel or on contact with people involved in the case, or a requirement to meet with a pretrial services agency.)' A judge sets the amount of money that a defendant must post. Those who cannot meet this requirement are detained until their case is resolved.6 Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law 1