The Sentencing Project is a Washington,D.C.-based research and advocacy centre working for decarceration in the United States and seeking to address racial disparities in the criminal justice system. The organisation produces nonpartisan reports and research for use by state and federal policymakers,administrators,and journalists.
An arrest warrant or bench warrant is a warrant issued by a judge or magistrate on behalf of the state which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual or the search and seizure of an individual's property.
Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Court bail may be offered to secure the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countries,especially the United States,bail usually implies a bail bond,a deposit of money or some form of property to the court by the suspect in return for the release from pre-trial detention. If the suspect does not return to court,the bail is forfeited and the suspect may be charged with the crime of failure to appear. If the suspect returns to make all their required appearances,bail is returned after the trial is concluded.
Incarceration in the United States is one of the primary means of punishment for crime in the United States. In 2021,over five million people were under supervision by the criminal justice system,with nearly two million people incarcerated in state or federal prisons and local jails. The United States has the largest known prison population in the world. It has 5% of the world’s population while having 20% of the world’s incarcerated persons. China,with four times more inhabitants,has fewer persons in prison. Prison populations grew dramatically beginning in the 1970s,but began a decline around 2009,dropping 25% by year-end 2021.
A "failure to appear" (FTA),also known as "bail jumping",occurs when a defendant or respondent does not come before a tribunal as directed in a summons. In the United States,FTAs are punishable by fines,incarceration,or both when committed by a criminal defendant. The severity of the punishment depends on the seriousness of the criminal charges that were the subject of the missed proceeding. An FTA may trigger a bench warrant for the defendant's arrest and impair their eligibility for bail and pretrial release in subsequent proceedings.
Michelle Alexander is an American writer,attorney,and civil rights activist. She is best known for her 2010 book The New Jim Crow:Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Since 2018,she has been an opinion columnist for the New York Times.
The Criminal Court of the City of New York is a court of the State Unified Court System in New York City that handles misdemeanors and lesser offenses,and also conducts arraignments and preliminary hearings in felony cases.
Pre-trial detention,also known as jail,preventive detention,provisional detention,or remand,is the process of detaining a person until their trial after they have been arrested and charged with an offence. A person who is on remand is held in a prison or detention centre or held under house arrest. Varying terminology is used,but "remand" is generally used in common law jurisdictions and "preventive detention" elsewhere. However,in the United States,"remand" is rare except in official documents and "jail" is instead the main terminology. Detention before charge is commonly referred to as custody and continued detention after conviction is referred to as imprisonment.
Race in the United States criminal justice system refers to the unique experiences and disparities in the United States in regard to the policing and prosecuting of various races. There have been different outcomes for different racial groups in convicting and sentencing felons in the United States criminal justice system. Although prior arrests and criminal history is also a factor. Experts and analysts have debated the relative importance of different factors that have led to these disparities.
The United States incarcerates more of its youth than any other country in the world,through the juvenile courts and the adult criminal justice system,which reflects the larger trends in incarceration practices in the United States. In 2010,approximately 70,800 juveniles were incarcerated in youth detention facilities alone. As of 2006,approximately 500,000 youth were brought to detention centers in a given year. This data does not reflect juveniles tried as adults. As of 2013,around 40% were incarcerated in privatized,for-profit facilities.
The New Jim Crow:Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a 2010 book by Michelle Alexander,a civil rights litigator and legal scholar. The book discusses race-related issues specific to African-American males and mass incarceration in the United States,but Alexander noted that the discrimination faced by African-American males is prevalent among other minorities and socio-economically disadvantaged populations. Alexander's central premise,from which the book derives its title,is that "mass incarceration is,metaphorically,the New Jim Crow".
Pretrial services programs are procedures in the United States to prepare cases for trial in court. In most jurisdictions pretrial services programs operate at the county level. Six US states operate and fund pretrial services programs at the state level. The US federal courts system operates pretrial services in all 94 federal districts.
Bail in the United States refers to the practice of releasing suspects from custody before their hearing,on payment of bail,which is money or pledge of property to the court which may be refunded if suspects return to court for their trial. Bail practices in the United States vary from state to state.
Alec Karakatsanis is an American civil rights lawyer,social justice advocate,co-founder of Equal Justice Under Law,and founder and Executive Director of Civil Rights Corps,a Washington D.C. impact litigation nonprofit. Karakatsanis' recent work has targeted the American monetary bail system. He also opposes copaganda.
Decarceration in the United States involves government policies and community campaigns aimed at reducing the number of people held in custody or custodial supervision. Decarceration,the opposite of incarceration,also entails reducing the rate of imprisonment at the federal,state and municipal level. As of 2019,the US was home to 5% of the global population but 25% of its prisoners. Until the COVID-19 pandemic,the U.S. possessed the world's highest incarceration rate:655 inmates for every 100,000 people,enough inmates to equal the populations of Philadelphia or Houston. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinvigorated the discussion surrounding decarceration as the spread of the virus poses a threat to the health of those incarcerated in prisons and detention centers where the ability to properly socially distance is limited. As a result of the push for decarceration in the wake of the pandemic,as of 2022,the incarceration rate in the United States declined to 505 per 100,000,resulting in the United States no longer having the highest incarceration rate in the world,but still remaining in the top five.
The Chicago Community Bond Fund is a non-profit bail fund that through donations from the public posts bail bonds for people who could otherwise not afford it. Starting from an informal effort to bail out several people who were arrested at a vigil for a Black man who had been killed by the Chicago Police,the fund saw a considerable increase in donations following the murder of George Floyd and the protests and arrests in Chicago that followed. Taking a crime-agnostic view on providing bail,arguing that it is judges who determine if a person is a threat to the general public by offering cash bail and that the presumption of innocence applies to all,the fund has posted the bonds of hundreds of people accused of crimes,including a number charged with violent crimes.
The Safety,Accountability,Fairness and Equity-Today Act,commonly known as the SAFE-T Act,is a state of Illinois statute enacted in 2021 that makes a number of reforms to the criminal justice system,affecting policing,pretrial detention and bail,sentencing,and corrections. The Act's section on pretrial detention,which took effect in full on September 18,2023,is also known as the Pretrial Fairness Act.
The Code of Criminal Procedure,sometimes called the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1965 or the Code of Criminal Procedure,1965,is an Act of the Texas State Legislature. The Act is a code of the law of criminal procedure of Texas.
In French criminal law,the investigation phase in a criminal proceeding is the procedure during which an investigating judge gathers evidence on the commission of an offense and decides whether to refer the persons charged to the trial court.
Henry ("Hank") F. Fradella is an American lawyer and criminologist who is a professor of criminology at Arizona State University’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice,and Affiliate Professor of Law at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.
