Watching Closely: Research Assistant Anya Milberg on Bail, Oversight, and Her Work with the Wilson Center

The Case That Started It All

In 2016, a woman named Maranda ODonnell was stopped by police while driving to pick up her four-year-old daughter. The charge was driving with a suspended license. A Harris County judge set her bail at $2,500. She couldn't pay it. She sat in jail, not because she posed any threat, but because she didn't have the money.

ODonnell's lawsuit became a landmark federal case. The result was a consent decree: a legally binding agreement, enforced by a federal court, that requires Harris County to overhaul how it handles misdemeanor bail. Under its terms, judges must consider a defendant's ability to pay, public defenders must be present at hearings, and secured custody must be a last resort rather than a default response to arrest. Someone has to make sure that's actually happening. That's where the Wilson Center for Science and Justice comes in.

The Project

Anya Milberg is a senior neuroscience major at Duke who joined the Wilson Center's Harris County bail project at the start of this academic year. Faculty lead Brandon Garrett was asked to provide independent oversight of the decree's implementation, and the work feeds directly into formal reports submitted to the court.

"Before the reforms, people were often detained simply because they couldn't afford bail," Anya explains. "Our role at the Wilson Center is to assist the monitor, who assesses whether the county is actually following through—especially whether judges are considering the ability to pay and treating secured custody as a genuine last resort, the way the decree requires."

A Week in Anya’s Life as a Research Assistant

The day-to-day work is detail-oriented. Anya and fellow research assistant Emily Wang comb through newly filed misdemeanor cases on the court clerk's website, tracking bail outcomes and the reasoning behind each decision.

"We look specifically at whether someone received a personal bond versus a secured financial bond," Anya says. A personal bond allows someone to be released on their own recognizance (no money required) while a secured financial bond requires them to pay a set amount before they can leave. Under the consent decree, for most misdemeanors, an inability to pay alone shouldn't be what keeps someone in a cell, and a judge must make findings, supported by clear and convincing evidence, to justify a secured bond, based on concerns about public safety or flight.

The team has looked closely at those findings, particularly in the cases that result in a bail hearing, known as “carve out” offenses under the Consent Decree. And the team has looked at specific problem areas, as they arise, based on reports of consent decree violations from parties, non-parties, and anonymous complaints. Beyond the data, Anya watches live hearings and takes detailed notes on how decisions are explained, collecting bond orders and flagging inconsistencies as they come up.

Each Friday, the broader team meets through the McAtee JustScience Lab, where student researchers across the Wilson Center gather in person to share findings and situate their work within the larger scope of what the center is doing. For Anya, it's a chance to see not just what her project is tracking, but where it fits.

What You Can't Learn From a Casebook

Watching hearings has changed how Anya thinks about fairness in practice. "One thing that's really stayed with me is how different someone's experience in court can be depending on which magistrate is running their hearing," she says. "The way someone is spoken to, how clearly things are explained, even small moments of acknowledgment can completely shape how that experience feels. I've also noticed that many hearings happen with the client physically in the courtroom while the District Attorney and magistrate appear on Zoom, which can make the process feel sterile and distant. It's made me think a lot about dignity and transparency, and about what justice is actually supposed to feel like for the person standing there."

The project has also reframed how she understands the relationship between law and policy. "On paper, state and federal laws can seem straightforward, but in the courtroom, there's often tension between them," she says. That friction, visible in real time, gave her a more grounded sense of how much discretion individual judges hold, and what it means for the person on the receiving end of that discretion.

Looking Forward

After graduation, Anya plans to attend law school with the goal of working in public defense. The project has sharpened that direction in concrete ways. "Watching the hearings and seeing the vast room for improvement, and how many people struggle through the system," she says, "makes me want to continue down the route of criminal justice and public defender work."

The Independent Monitor Team’s formal reports to the court carry real weight, and behind every finding is someone like Anya watching closely, taking notes, and paying attention to what the data alone can't capture.

Learn more about the McAtee JustScience Lab and the ODonnell Consent Decree Monitorship.