TO TEST THE ARGUMENT AGAINST BAIL REFORM, THE OUTCOME OF RANDOMLY SELECTED FELONY CASES IN HOUSTON TEXAS WERE ANALYZED. ALL DEFENDANTS WERE MONITORED BY A COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR A THIRTY MONTH PERIOD. THE RESULTS AMONG OTHER THINGS INDICATED THAT BAIL REFORM, AS EXPERIENCED IN THIS MAJOR SOUTHWESTERN JURISDICATION, HAS NOT SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECTED PRETRIAL FLIGHT OR CRIME.
Since misdemeanor offenders may significantly contribute to local jail overcrowding, it is incumbent upon criminal justice policy makers to explore alternatives to incarceration for society's less serious offenders. In order to address the feasibility of adopting a policy of alternative sanctions for general misdemeanor offenders, the investigators conducted a three year longitudinal study of minor offenders sentenced to fine, probation, and jail in a large southwest urban jurisdiction (Houston, Texas). The most salient finding was the emergence of probation as a superior sanction. Utilizing traditional chi-square analysis, probation exhibited the lowest recidivism rate. Employing recently developed survival time analysis, probationers had a significantly higher probability of not recidivating than jailed offenders during the study period. The authors conclude by discussing the policy implications of these findings.
Bail reform is under attack by public officials historically identified with the cause of social justice. Release on personal recognizance is increasingly assailed as significantly contributing to the problem of pretrial flight and crime. Are these observations valid or have such reforms represented a step toward equal justice‐without seriously threatening public safety? To test the argument against bail reform, the authors analyzed the outcome of randomly selected felony cases in Houston, Texas. All defendants were monitored by a computerized information system for athirty month period.The results of the major hypotheses were mixed. Pretrial status was found to have no significant effect on conviction outcome. However, as expected, a significantly higher proportion of convicted detained defendants were sentenced to prison than their bonded counterparts. While failure to appear rate was found relatively high for both defendants released on recognizance and money bail, the actual fugitive rate (2%) and pretrial crime rate (7%) for total bonded defendants were low. Finally the results indicated that bail reform, as experienced in this major southwestern jurisdication, has not significantly affected pretrial flight or crime.
