Background - For decades, many researchers have concluded that people who are detained in jail before trial often face harsher case outcomes than those released pretrial, including a

Moreover, there has been little exploration of the size of the difference in case outcome severity between people held and released pretrial, and whether this magnitude varies across different outcomes (e.g., the likelihood of accepting a plea deal, having a case dismissed, being convicted). [...] Each of the selected studies controlled for offense type/severity and criminal history, acknowledging that these factors shape the likelihood of pretrial detention and the severity of the sentence. [...] By including these controls, the author ensured that the impact of pretrial detention on case outcome severity found in this analysis was not skewed by the potential influence of offense type/severity and criminal history. [...] The magnitude of the average effect of pretrial detention on the six case outcomes varied. [...] Implications “By lessening the number of people held in pretrial This study offers a more comprehensive detention, the approximately look at the nature of the relationship $13.6 billion annual costs of between pretrial detention and case pretrial could potentially be outcome severity.