By Chinmay Amin In Harris County, Texas, hearing officers and judges in low-level misdemeanor cases had relied on a cash-bail system prior to 2019. In setting misdemeanor bail, the hearing officers and judges did not routinely inquire into public safety, flight risk, or whether a defendant was homeless, indigent, or unable to pay. In most […]
Tag: cash bail
Houston Bail Monitor One-Year Report Shows Increased Releases, Reduced Use of Cash Bail
HOUSTON, T.X. – The independent monitors overseeing Harris County’s historic bail reform agreement filed their report describing their first year of work and findings with the federal court this week, noting an increase in releases, a reduced use of cash bail, no change or a decline in repeat-offending, and the implementation of a range of […]
Wilson Researchers to Bail Working Group: Durham Jail Population Down after Reforms but we Need Better Data
Researchers from the Wilson Center for Science and Justice have been scraping jail data in Durham in an effort to analyze pretrial policies and practices concerning the use of cash bail. Wilson Center Research Director William E. Crozier, Center Director Brandon L. Garrett, and PhD. candidate Arvind Krishnamurthy wrote “The Transparency of Jail Data,” an […]