We review the national and local data.

Prison Policy Initiative updates for October 9, 2019 Showing how mass incarceration harms communities and our national welfare

What 18 years of research can - and can't - tell us about pretrial detention and race [[link removed]] The government hasn’t collected national data on the race or ethnicity of people awaiting trial in jail since 2002. We review the academic literature published since then to offer a more current assessment of racial disparities in pretrial detention.

by Wendy Sawyer

Being jailed before trial is no small matter: It can throw a defendant’s life into disarray and make it more likely that they will plead guilty just to get out of jail. As advocates bring national attention to these harms of pretrial detention, many places – most recently New Jersey, California, New York, and Colorado – have passed reforms intended to dramatically reduce pretrial populations.

But it’s not enough to simply bring pretrial populations down: Another central goal of pretrial reform must be to eliminate racial bias in decisions about who is detained pretrial and who is allowed to go free.

Historically, Black and brown defendants have been more likely to be jailed before trial than white defendants. And recent evidence from New Jersey [[link removed]] and Kentucky [[link removed]] shows that while some reforms have helped reduce pretrial populations, they’ve had little or no impact on reducing racial disparities.

As of 2002 [[link removed]] (the last time the government collected this data nationally), about 29% of people in local jails were unconvicted – that is, locked up while awaiting trial or another hearing. Nearly 7 in 10 (69%) of these detainees were people of color, with Black (43%) and Hispanic (19.6%) defendants especially overrepresented compared to their share of the total U.S. population. [[link removed]]

Since then, pretrial populations have more than doubled in size [[link removed]], and unconvicted defendants now make up about two-thirds [[link removed]] (65%) of jail populations nationally. With far more people exposed to the harms of pretrial detention than before, the question of racial justice in the pretrial process is an urgent one – but the lack of national data has made it hard to answer.

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Profile of Jail Inmates 2002, Table 1 & Jail Inmates in 2017, Table 3.

So what, exactly, is the state of racial justice in pretrial detention? And where can advocates go to assess racial justice in their county or state? What data do they need, and what questions should they be asking?

This briefing reviews findings from recent studies of racial disparities in pretrial decisions – including both national and more geographically-limited analyses – and then suggests directions for further research to understand and address the problem.

To assess the state of racial justice in pretrial detention since the last national survey was conducted nearly 20 years ago, I reviewed more recent academic literature – studies that utilize other data sources and offer more nuanced analysis.

Overall, the available research suggests that:

In large urban areas, Black felony defendants are over 25% more likely than white defendants to be held pretrial. Across the country, Black and brown defendants are at least 10-25% more likely than white defendants to be detained pretrial or to have to pay money bail. Young Black men are about 50% more likely to be detained pretrial than white defendants. Black and brown defendants receive bail amounts that are twice as high as bail set for white defendants – and they are less likely to be able to afford it. Even in states that have implemented pretrial reforms, racial disparities persist in pretrial detention.

The above is an excerpt from our longer article [[link removed]] about pretrial detention and race. See the Appendix to this article [[link removed]] for a list of all of the sources Wendy reviewed, including links and summaries of the findings.

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Our work is made possible by private donations. Can you help us keep going? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!

Other news: How money bail keeps people of color in jail pretrial [[link removed]]

Our 2016 report Detaining the Poor [[link removed]] found that people in jail who can't make bail are overwhelmingly low-income, and the poorest defendants are people of color. Black women detained pretrial, for instance, have an average income of $9,083 - meaning that the typical bail bond costs more than their entire year's wages.

Read our 2016 report. [[link removed]]

How many people who go to jail each year are Black? [[link removed]]

At least 4.9 million people go to local jails each year, we found in our groundbreaking national report Arrest, Release, Repeat. [[link removed]] A disproportionate number are Black. Despite making up only 13% of the national population, Black individuals account for 21% of people who were arrested just once and 28% of people arrested multiple times in 2017, our sample year.

Read our full report. [[link removed]]

Please support our work [[link removed]]

Our work is made possible by private donations. Can you help us keep going? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!

Our other newsletters Ending prison gerrymandering ( archives [[link removed]]) Criminal justice research library ( archives) [[link removed]]

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