A new study by the RAND Corporation found that providing defendants with legal counsel during the initial bail hearing decreases the use of monetary bail and pretrial detention without increasing the likelihood that defendants fail to appear at the subsequent preliminary hearing.
The study was based on a field experiment in Pittsburgh, Pa., where public defenders were assigned to a limited number of initial bail hearings, according to a May 5 news release.
"This study is particularly relevant given that roughly half of the counties in the United States do not currently provide defense representation at the bail hearing," Shamena Anwar, one of the study's authors and a senior economist at RAND, said in the release.
The analysis found having legal counsel at bail hearings increased the probability of being released without monetary bail by 21% and reduced the probability an individual was in jail three days after their bail hearing by 10%, according to the release.
"These results clearly show that public defenders have a substantial impact on defendants receiving a favorable outcome at the initial bail hearing," Anwar said in the release.
Recent studies have provided substantial evidence that pretrial detention leads to worse outcomes for both the defendant and society at large, with longer jail stays and higher chances of conviction in the short term and worse recidivism and employment outcomes over the long term, the release said.
"These results should be helpful for jurisdictions that are considering providing defense representation at bail hearings, although more research in this area is needed to understand the extent to which the results we find here are generalizable to other jurisdictions with different bail hearing procedures," Anwar added, according to the release.
The study's findings have significant implications for criminal justice reform, particularly in light of the ongoing debate around the use of monetary bail and pretrial detention, the release reported. The study's authors hope their findings will encourage more jurisdictions to provide legal counsel to defendants during the initial bail hearing.
