What Happens When Prosecutors Stop Asking for Cash Bail?

Philadelphia’s recently elected district attorney implemented a No-Cash-Bail reform policy, providing that the district attorney’s office would stop asking for cash bail for defendants charged with 25 misdemeanor and felony offenses. A study of that policy change found, among other things, that it led to an increase in defendants released with no monetary or other conditions, a decrease in the number of defendants who spent at least one night in jail, but no accompanying change in failures to appear (FTAs) or recidivism. Aurelie Ouss & Megan Stevenson, Evaluating the Impacts of Eliminating Prosecutorial Requests for Cash Bail (George Mason Legal Studies Research Paper No. LS 19-08, Feb. 17, 2019). Those skeptical of eliminating cash bail have argued that taking a monetary incentive out of the system would result in higher FTAs and increases in pretrial crime. Id. at 5. The new study undermines those assertions. On February 21, 2018, Philadelphia’s District Attorney Larry Krasner announced that his office would no longer seek cash bail for defendants charged with 25 different offenses. Id. at 2; 7. The offenses include felonies and misdemeanors, ranging from low-level offenses like non-residential trespass, to more serious ones, like burglaries with no person present and certain drug crimes. Id. at 7. The goal of the reform was to reduce pretrial detentions and avoid wealth-based detentions. Id. To evaluate the impact of this policy, the researchers pulled data from court records, including 47,052 observations. Id. Of the cases filed before the new policy went into effect, 63% would [...]