What's Happening in Pretrial Justice? February 2024

Bureau of Justice Statistics Releases 2022 Jail Numbers. At mid-year 2022, local jails held 663,100 people in custody, or 4% more people than the year before. The number of people in jail who were Black increased 6% from last year, accounting for more than 50% of the jail population increase. Seventy percent of people in jail were unconvicted, awaiting court action, or held in jail for other reasons. Jails also reported responsibility for supervising 56,300 people outside of the jail, an 11% increase from the year before. For more statistics, go here.

Court-Appointed Attorney Fees Even Worse than Imagined. Charging people a court-appointed attorney fee when they cannot afford an attorney is the sort of make-the-poor-poorer idea that seems to thrive in the U.S. criminal legal system. In Virginia, where court-appointed attorney fees range from $120 for a misdemeanor to $1235 for a felony, the inequity doesn’t stop there. A new study from Justice 4 All found that attorney fees are higher in high-poverty areas than low-poverty areas, and attorney fees are higher in areas with larger Black populations.

Illinois Jail Populations are Dropping, but More Data is Required. The Coalition to End Money Bond is reporting lower jail populations across the state as a result of the state’s historic Pretrial Fairness Act. However, advocates note that the state has failed to comply with several data reporting requirements, a key to creating transparency and accountability.

Citations Linked to Lower Rates of Detention and Jail Sentences. A new study on the impact of cite and release on misdemeanor cases found that citation cases were significantly less likely to result in jail sentences than arrest/warrant cases (4% vs. 19%). The author of the study, University of Massachusetts Professor R.R. Dunlea, characterized the effect as “custodial inertia,” where people who begin their cases in jail cells are likely to stay there during and after the resolution of the case.

Majority of Deaths in Oklahoma Jails Linked to Untreated Mental Health Needs. An investigation by Oklahoma Watch found that in 2022, 28 people died in jail from untreated mental health or substance use conditions, more than half of the state’s 53 deaths in jail. The non-profit journalism outfit also uncovered huge discrepancies in reporting on jail deaths; one county had failed to report at least six deaths since 2017, and the District Attorney’s Council had reported only 26 deaths in jail the same year Oklahoma Watch identified 53.