Don't I have a right to bail? A study of bail decisions/outcomes and their effects on plea bargaining and sentencing

Previous research on bail practices has shown that legal factors such as offense severity and prior criminal record impact bail decisions and outcomes, as well as demographic factors such as race and gender. While sentencing practices have been studied extensively, bail is at the forefront of the criminal process and has the potential to affect the trajectory of a case. This study examines the factors that impact bail decision making and the subsequent influence of bail on the entire criminal case process that includes plea bargaining and ultimately sentencing. The analyses consist primarily of quantitative methods. Specifically, this research employs a sample of 634 New Jersey superior court cases tracked from arrest through disposition. These data are supplemented with findings from interviews with the courtroom work group and observations of bail hearings.;Regarding bail, this study finds that both legal and extralegal factors impact bail decisions and that financial resources play an important role in bail outcomes. More specifically, the seriousness of the offense and the number of charges brought against the defendant strongly impact bail decisions by the court. This study examines bail decisions made by judges and subsequent bail outcomes, i.e., whether defendant posted financial bail and were released or not. Individuals represented by public defenders are less likely to post bail when compared with individuals who have private counsel. Bail amount set by the court is higher for defendants in urban jurisdictions and defendants in urban jurisdictions are less likely to be able to post bail. Looking at demographic factors, minorities receive less advantageous bail decisions and black defendants are less likely to post bail. Conversely, bail amount plays a strong role in bail outcomes in that defendants with higher monetary bail requirements are less likely to post bail, highlighting the importance of the defendant's economic resources. Additionally, this study's qualitative findings demonstrate that criminal history is a strong consideration in bail decisions and that the courtroom work group dynamic also influences bail proceedings.;Turning to subsequent decision points, this study found that an increase in the number of charges is related to an increase in the case's disposition time. While cases involving black and hispanic defendants take longer to reach a disposition, cases involving public defenders have a shorter disposition time. These results support the hypothesis that defendants who are detained before trial plead guilty earlier than defendants who are able to post bail, which can significantly affect later dispositions. Although pretrial detention does not impact the decision to incarcerate, pretrial detention does significantly impact the length of the sentence in cases that involve incarceration. Several other factors influence sentence length, including gender, race, the number of charges and offense type, and prior criminal history.;In sum, the quantitative analyses indicate that both legal and extralegal factors impact bail decisions. The qualitative data demonstrate that factors internal to the court, i.e., agreement on the going rate, also play a role in bail proceedings. Moreover, these results show that pretrial detention impacts subsequent decision points in that defendants who are detained prior to trial, in most instances, plead guilty faster and receive lengthier sentences. The impact of bail proceedings on the trajectory of a case highlights the ongoing need to carefully scrutinize pretrial practices.