What's Happening in Pretrial Justice? January 2025

Less Police Contact, More Problems. Our friends at the Prison Policy Initiative have broken down the latest report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ Public-Police. The big takeaway? In 2022 (the latest year available), in spite of declines in police contact overall, people of color, particularly Black people, are more likely to experience police-initiated contact, such as street stops, traffic stops, and arrests. During traffic stops, Black drivers are significantly more likely to be arrested, searched or experience police misconduct. There is also a trend showing more older adults and women experiencing use of force.

US Congress Upends Fundamental Pretrial Tenet. The Laken Riley Act has passed. This sweeping immigration bill, among other things, mandates automatic detention of any undocumented person arrested for property crimes such as misdemeanor shoplifting, with no opportunity for pretrial release. This law disregards the core principle of pretrial justice that the majority of people should be released before trial.

Pretrial Detention Linked to Bankruptcy. A new study shows that while household insolvency is a rare event, pretrial detention makes it significantly more likely that members of a household of a person who is locked up pretrial are likely to file for bankruptcy or be subjected to a judgment lien or foreclosure, even when the person is released within 24 hours. We recommend reading this study alongside A Debt of Care: Commercial Bail and the Gendered Logic of Criminal Justice Predation (2019).

Idaho Public Defense System in Chaos. The ACLU has filed an emergency motion in the aftermath of a new statewide public defender system introduced in October. According to the ACLU, people have been held in jail for weeks or months without being able to speak to their attorneys because of systemic flaws; additionally, an attempt to equalize pay statewide resulted in mass resignations of public defenders and support staff in the state’s most populous county. The new system was supposed to address long-standing access to counsel issues that the ACLU has litigated since 2015.

The Feds Came Down to Georgia. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Divison announced that it had entered into a court-enforceable agreement to address dangerous and illegal conditions at the Fulton County Jail. In November, DOJ had identified “harms from pest infestation and malnourishment and…substantial risk of serious harm from violence by other incarcerated people — including homicides, stabbings and sexual abuse” as well as a failure to provide special education services to 17-year-olds housed at the jail.

Your Moment of Inspiration.

How are you doing? If you need a moment to breathe and look forward, we recommend this op-ed from David Gaspar at The Bail Project, reminding us of the critical role of mutual aid in our work. If you need more people to understand the problem and get involved alongside you, we recommend this essay from Justine Olderman, formerly of The Bronx Defenders, on why we need to do away with pretrial detention.

What’s Up at PJI?

We’ve started a new practice of pausing to debrief each other on lessons from the in-person and online conferences that we attend. Rae has been attending events with an emphasis on research and policy change - one takeaway she shared is that in cases of domestic violence, research shows that Indigenous women and women in rural areas are more like to externalize trauma. Shavonte’s events have looked at the importance of language - both in terms of putting people first and providing language to describe the pretrial system. Kiki and Guisela attended the Race Forward conference, and are looking forward to implementing many of the practices to make attendees at our events feel more engaged, cared for, and welcome.

We’re Curious

It's been five years since PJI came out with its position against risk assessments, and we're wondering what that has meant to you and for you. Did you rethink your position on risk assessments, or use this information in training or discussions?

Tell us at pji@pretrial.org.