Assessing the Effectiveness of Pretrial Special Conditions – Full Findings from the Pretrial Justice Collaborative

Below is an interesting report on electronic monitoring for pretrial conditions. More information is at the website and there is a link below for the report.

The analysis found that:

Being released on EM or sobriety monitoring did not significantly improve court appearance rates. The analyses found that the special conditions and non–special conditions groups had similar pretrial court appearance rates. These results were consistent across jurisdictions.

Being released on electronic monitoring did not significantly increase the percentage of people who avoided a new arrest during the pretrial period. In fact, the analysis found that the EM group had a higher pretrial rearrest rate than the non-EM group, a result that was consistent across the two jurisdictions in that analysis. While the factors causing the results are not definitively known, the difference may be a supervision effect: people may be more likely to be arrested if their actions are more closely monitored, compared with others who are less closely monitored. Alternatively, the result may reflect unmeasured differences between the EM and non-EM groups that could not be controlled for in the analysis.

Being released on sobriety monitoring did not significantly improve the percentage of people who avoided a new arrest, but there was variation in this effect among jurisdictions. In two of the four jurisdictions studied, people who were assigned to sobriety monitoring were more likely to avoid new arrests, while in the other two, the result was the opposite.

Get the report HERE

Evaluation of Prosecutorial Policy Reforms Eliminating Criminal Penalties for Drug Possession and Sex Work in Baltimore, Maryland

This seems counter intuitive. Drug crimes and prostitution are notorious for high recidivism rates. Now to say that after a drug or prostitution arrest then not to prosecute will lower recidivism? This is questionable. I haven’t read this report yet but my first instinct is that this is hard to believe.

publichealth.jhu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-10/prosecutorial-policy-evaluation-report-20211019.pdf

2022 Year End Review Crime in America

Nationwide crime is still on the rise, but why? Crime continues to plague American communities across the Nation. In the wake of the widespread civil unrest and violence that beset much of the country in 2020, crime rose to levels unseen in decades. Unfortunately, while the riots and looting have abated, overall crime rates have not.
— Read on americafirstpolicy.com/latest/2022-year-end-review-crime-in-america

Get a .PDF copy of the report HERE