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Notable Recent Publications, January 2025

Notable Recent Publications features the latest empirical research and data related to indigent/public defense. If you have suggestions, ideas for work that should be included, or trouble accessing any of the articles featured, please write to Venita Embry at vembry@rti.org 


*New Articles and Reports*

Bing, L., Goldstein, R., Ho, H., Pager, D., & Western, B. (2024). The long-term impact of debt relief for indigent defendants in a misdemeanor court. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences121(51), e2415066121.

US courts regularly assess fines, fees, and costs against criminal defendants. Court-related debt can cause continuing court involvement and incarceration, not because of new crimes, but because of unpaid financial obligations. We conducted an experiment with 606 people found guilty of misdemeanors in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. Study participants were randomly selected to receive relief from all current and prior fines and fees assessed for criminal charges in the county. Fee relief reduced jail bookings 21 mo after randomization and the effect persisted over 44 mo of follow-up. Although fee relief reduced incarceration, financial sanctions had no effect on indicators of lawbreaking. Instead, the control group (who obtained no relief from fines and fees) were rearrested at significantly higher rates because of open arrest warrants for nonpayment. These results indicate the long-term and criminalizing effects of legal debt, supporting claims that financial sanctions disproportionately harm low-income defendants while contributing little to public safety.

Kim, Jaeok, Will McKeithen, Emma Delaporte, and Christopher Gernon. "Putting Bail Reform into Practice." Vera Institute, January 2025. https://vera-institute.files.svdcdn.com/production/downloads/publications/Putting-Bail-Reform-into-Practice-Report.pdf

This report is the second in a two-part series combining administrative data analysis, court observations, and interviews with court actors to provide an extensive look into how five upstate counties—Albany, Broome, Erie, Tompkins, and Ulster—implemented bail reform on the ground. The previous report focused on the bill’s initial implementation in 2020 during the height of the COVID19 pandemic and lockdown.2 This report continues the story to examine how upstate courts implemented bail reform post-lockdown and solidified a “new normal” within the pretrial system between 2021 and 2022. In particular, the report highlights how courts interpreted and applied key provisions of bail reform regarding presumptive release, pretrial supervision, bail arguments, bail affordability, and court non-appearance.

Lacoe, J., Fischer, B., & Raphael, S. (2024). The Effect of a Pre-Arraignment Legal Representation Pilot on Pretrial Release and Criminal Case Outcomes. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 1-23.

Low-income individuals facing criminal charges experience disproportionately high rates of pretrial detention and conviction. We study a pilot program in Santa Clara County, CA that aims to address this inequity by providing access to public defenders immediately following arrest. The Santa Clara Public Defender agreed to provide pilot services one day per week, rotating the intervention day across weeks. Individuals booked on an intervention day were eligible for early legal representation, while individuals booked on control days received public defender services as usual. The study leverages the rotating treatment day to compare pretrial release and case outcomes between eligible individuals booked on treatment days and eligible individuals booked on control days. Pilot program participants were 28 percentage points more likely to secure pretrial release, and 36 percentage points more likely to see their cases dismissed, relative to comparable individuals who generally first meet with their public defender at arraignment. Providing prompt access to legal representation could improve release and case outcomes for low-income individuals and the efficacy of public defense.

Ostrom, B.J., Racek, F., Freeman, K.R., & Monaghan, R. (2024). The Fair and Timely Resolution of Criminal Cases: North Dakota’s Transformational System of Effective Caseflow Management. National Center for State Courts. Retrieved from: https://www.ndcourts.gov/news/north-dakota/north-dakota-supreme-court/reports/study-finds-north-dakota-courts-lead-in-effective-management-of-felony-cases

Abstract: The National Center for State Courts has released the results of a multi-year study of criminal case management in North Dakota. This project culminated in a 75-page full report that presents 1) the steps taken in North Dakota to build a comprehensive system of criminal caseflow management that can successfully be deployed statewide and 2) the actions taken to mitigate delays identified through this work.  The full report illustrates the process used in North Dakota to develop and implement a system of criminal caseflow management that supports the effective resolution of criminal cases.  It is designed for readers interested in learning more about this approach and is organized by the basic strategy used most effectively in North Dakota:  (1) set expectations and build the data foundation, (2) evaluate current practice, (3) understand the principles of caseflow management and implement docket management concepts that get the most out of available resources, and (4) bring together these steps to design a successful caseflow management system and ensure that timely data is available both for case-level decision making and for overall court management.  Beyond clarifying the parameters of an effective caseflow management system, the study also examined several areas deemed potential sources of delay.

Peterson, L., Friedlander, M. L., Moeyaert, M., Peterson, C., & Peterson, E. (2024). Testing the efficacy of a single-session intervention to reduce work-related distress. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 1-21.

To address the high levels of work-related stress experienced by public defender trial attorneys, a brief, single-session FACT intervention was implemented. A multiple-baseline, single-case design was employed to evaluate changes in general distress and psychological flexibility. A variety of visual, regression, parametric and non-parametric analyses were used. Results demonstrated significant reductions in distress for some participants, and increases in psychological flexibility for most. These findings suggest that brief ACT-based interventions may help psychotherapy clients increase their psychological flexibility when experiencing work-related distress. This study tested the efficacy of a single session, online intervention based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for decreasing work-related distress and increasing psychological flexibility in a sample of 11 public defender attorneys. While general distress was reduced in some, but not all, participants, most of them reported meaningful increases in psychological flexibility, the central concept in ACT.

Reynoso Colin, M. (2024). Addressing the Issue of Public Defender Excessive Caseload in Low-Income Communities. Capstone/thesis. https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2853&context=caps_thes_all

The Monterey County Public Defender’s Office plays a vital role in providing legal representation to low-income individuals, ensuring their constitutional rights are upheld. Although the office effectively fulfills its mandate, it aims to enhance defense support by exploring ways to reduce attorney workloads and improve service quality. This project was developed to assess attorney-to-client ratios, identify staffing needs, and evaluate the potential benefits of integrating paralegals into the team. Using a mixed-methods approach, the project included interviews with attorneys to gather insights on workload challenges and identify tasks that could be delegated to paralegal staff. Findings revealed that certified paralegals could alleviate attorneys’ administrative burdens, enabling them to dedicate more time to case preparation and client representation. The project recommends incentivizing current legal secretaries to obtain paralegal certification as a cost-effective and sustainable strategy to strengthen the office’s legal support infrastructure. Future steps include establishing partnerships for paralegal training programs and evaluating the impact of these changes on attorney efficiency and client satisfaction.