Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

From Bail to Jail: The Effect of Jail Capacity on Bail Decisions

  • Published:
American Journal of Criminal Justice Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

One of the more important decisions made by judges in the criminal justice system is the bail decision. Factors that judges take into consideration when making a bail decision, such as seriousness of the offense, flight risk, and public safety, are typically seen by researchers as the primary determinants of such a decision. However, one aspect that researchers have not studied extensively—rated jail capacity – could play an important role in a judge’s decision. Overcrowding in jails leads to numerous problems, both for the offender and the system itself, so judges may be more willing to release offenders into the community during the pretrial period if the local jails are overcrowded. The current study examines the effect of rated jail capacity on decisions regarding bail amounts, release on recognizance (ROR), financial release, and conditional release in eight Florida counties. Results indicate that rated jail capacity plays a role in judges’ bail decisions, suggesting that judges are concerned about housing more pretrial offenders in crowded jails.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Albonetti, C. (1987). Prosecutorial discretion: The effects of uncertainty. Law and Society Review, 21, 291–313.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Albonetti, C. (1991). An integration of theories to explain judicial discretion. Social Problems, 38, 247–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ayres, I., & Waldfogel, J. (1994). A market test for race discrimination in bail setting. Stanford Law Review, 46, 987–1047.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bolduc, A. (1985). Jail crowding. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 478, 47–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonta, J., & Gendreau, P. (1994). Reexamining the cruel and unusual punishment of prison life. In M. C. Braswell, R. H. Montgomery Jr., & L. Lombardo (Eds.), Prison violence in America (2nd ed., pp. 39–68). Cincinnati: Anderson publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown v. Plata. (2011). 563 U.S. ___.

  • Brown, R., & Frank, J. (2006). Race and officer decision making: Examining differences in arrest outcomes between black and white officers. Justice Quarterly, 23, 96–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1997). Prison and jail inmates at midyear 1996. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2000). Prison and jail inmates at midyear 1999. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2005). Prison and jail inmates at midyear 2004. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Alessio, S., & Stolzenberg, L. (1995). Unemployment and the incarceration of pretrial defendants. American Sociological Review, 60, 350–359.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demuth, S. (2003). Racial and ethnic differences in pretrial release decisions and outcomes: A comparison of Hispanic, Black, and White felony arrestees. Criminology, 41, 873–907.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demuth, S., & Steffensmeier, D. (2004). Ethnicity effects on sentence outcomes in large urban courts: Comparisons among white, black, and hispanic defendants. Social Science Quarterly, 85, 994–1011.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eichenthal, D. (2012). The budget case for criminal justice reform. Government Finance Review, 28, 61–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feeley, M. (1992). The process is the punishment: Handling cases in a lower criminal court. New York: Russell Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 3.131. (2014). Pretrial release. Retrieved from http://floridacriminalprocedure.com/3-131-pretrial-release/.

  • Fries, J. (2009). Dim views from a crowded jail. Retrieved from http://www.sptimes.com/2007/webspecials07/special_reports/crowded-jail/.

  • Goldkamp, J. (1985). Danger and detention: A second generation of bail reform. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 76, 1–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldkamp, J., & Gottfredson, M. (1979). Bail decision making and pretrial detention: Surfacing policy. Law and Human Behavior, 3, 227–249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goss, J., Peterson, K., Smith, L., Kalb, K., & Brodey, B. (2002). Characteristics of suicide attempts in a large urban jail system with an established suicide prevention program. Psychiatric Services, 53, 574–579.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gottfredson, M., & Gottfredson, D. (1988). Decision-making in criminal justice: Toward the rational exercise of discretion. New York: Plenum Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hartley, R., Maddan, S., & Spohn, C. (2007). Prosecutorial discretion: An examination of substantial assistance departures in federal crack cocaine and powder cocaine cases. Justice Quarterly, 24, 382–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hedlund, J., Cox, S., Hines, M., Carollo, J., & Dwyer, L. (2005). Development and validation of an assessment for pretrial conditional release. Retrieved from http://www.pretrial.org/download/risk-assessment/Development%20and%Validation %20of%20an%20Assessment%20for%20Pretrial%20Conditional%20Release%20-%20Hedlund%202005.pdf.

  • Hegreness, M. (2013). America’s fundamental and vanishing right to bail. Arizona Law Review, 55, 909–969.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, M., Hosch, H., Daudistel, H., Perez, D., & Graves, J. (1996). Ethnicity, legal resources, and felony dispositions in two southwestern jurisdictions. Justice Quarterly, 13, 11–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jett, K., & Hancock, J. (2013). Realignment in the counties. Federal Sentencing Reporter, 25, 236–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, M., & Johnson, L. (2012). Bail: Reforming policies to address overcrowded jails, the impact of race on detention, and community revival in Harris County, Texas. Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy, 7, 42–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Justice Policy Institute. (2011). Due south: Broward County, Florida: Expanding pretrial release. Retrieved from http://www.justicepolicy.org/uploads/justicepolicy/documents/due_south_-roward_countyfl.pdf.

  • Kane, R. (1999). Patterns of arrest in domestic violence encounters: Identifying a police decisionmaking model. Journal of Criminal Justice, 27, 65–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karnow, C. (2008). Setting bail for public safety. Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law, 13, 1–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katz, C., & Spohn, C. (1995). The effect of race and gender on bail outcomes: A test of an interactive model. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 19, 161–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, R., & Mauer, M. (2005). The war on marijuana: The transformation of the war on drugs in the 1990s. Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klofas, J. (1990). The jail and the community. Justice Quarterly, 7, 69–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kochel, T., Wilson, D., & Mastrofski, S. (2011). Effect of suspect race on officers’ arrest decisions. Criminology, 49, 473–512.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lofstrom, M., & Kramer, K. (2012). Capacity challenges in California’s jails. Retrieved from http://www.ppic.org/main/publication_quick.asp?i=1034.

  • Martin, J., & Travis, M. (1992). Defending the indigent during a war on crime. Retrieved from http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=cjlpp.

  • Maxwell, S. (1999). Examining the congruence between predictors of ROR and failures to appear. Journal of Criminal Justice, 27, 127–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mullen, J. (1985). Prison crowding and the evolution of public policy. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 478, 31–46.

  • Nagel, I. (1983). The legal/extralegal controversy: Judicial decisions in pretrial release. Law & Society Review, 17, 481–515.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neubauer, D., & Fradella, P. (2011). America’s courts and the criminal justice system. Independence: Cengage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paulus, P., & McCain, G. (1983). Crowding in jails. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 4, 89–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, M. (2004). Release and bail decisions in New York City. New York: New York City Criminal Justice Agency.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinchevsky, G., & Steiner, B. (2013). Sex-based disparities in pre-trial release decisions and outcomes. Crime & Delinquency. doi:10.1177/0011128713482415.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez, F., Curry, T., & Lee, G. (2006). Gender differences in criminal sentencing: Do effects vary across violent, property, and drug offenses? Social Science Quarterly, 87, 318–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sacks, M., & Ackerman, A. (2014). Bail and sentencing: Does pretrial detention lead to harsher punishment? Criminal Justice Policy Review, 25, 55–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlesinger, T. (2005). Racial and ethnic disparity in pretrial criminal processing. Justice Quarterly, 22, 170–192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shermer, L., & Johnson, B. (2010). Criminal prosecutions: Examining prosecutorial discretion and charge reductions in U.S. federal district courts. Justice Quarterly, 27, 394–430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shubik-Richards, C. (2010). Philadelphia’s jail population: A research initiative. American Jails, 24, 41–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spohn, C., Beichner, D., & Davis-Frenzel, E. (2001). Prosecutorial justifications for sexual assault case rejection: Guarding the “gateway to justice.”. Social Problems, 48, 206–235.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steffensmeier, D., & Demuth, S. (2000). Ethnicity and sentencing outcomes in U.S. federal courts: Who is punished more harshly? American Sociological Review, 65, 705–729.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steffensmeier, D., Ulmer, J. T., & Kramer, J. (1998). The interaction of race, gender, and age in criminal sentencing: The punishment cost of being young, black, and male. Criminology, 36, 763–797.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stith, K. (2008). The arc of the pendulum: Judges, prosecutors, and the exercise of discretion. Yale Law Journal, 117, 1236–1567.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tartaro, C. (2002). The impact of density on jail violence. Journal of Criminal Justice, 30, 499–510.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tennenbaum, A. (1994). The influence of the Garner decision on police use of deadly force. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 85, 241–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2004). State court processing statistics, 1990–2004 [Computer file]. ICPSR (2038). Ann Arbor: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research [Distributor].

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, M. (2013). The effectiveness of public defenders in four Florida counties. Journal of Criminal Justice, 41, 205–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, M. (2014). The effect of attorney type on bail decisions. Criminal Justice Policy Review. doi:10.1177/0887403414562603.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, M., Demuth, S., & Holcomb, J. (2007). Understanding the influence of victim gender in death penalty cases: The importance of victim race, sex-related victimization, and jury decision-making. Criminology, 45, 865–891.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wooldredge, J. (2012). Distinguishing race effects on pretrial release and sentencing decisions. Justice Quarterly, 29, 41–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, USA

    Marian R. Williams

Authors
  1. Marian R. Williams
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marian R. Williams.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Williams, M.R. From Bail to Jail: The Effect of Jail Capacity on Bail Decisions. Am J Crim Just 41, 484–497 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-015-9305-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-015-9305-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation