Evaluating Public Policy Programs – An In-Depth Analysis and Assessment

The participation of the community in the criminal justice system has increased significantly over the past decade due to the rise of community programs that focus on eliminating the injustices in the criminal justice system. Communities in different States in the United States have created programs that require the community’s involvement in making decisions within the criminal justice system and formulating and implementing policies that impact the criminal justice system. The community’s participation in criminal justice policy formulation has been essential in creating reforms that increase fairness in the criminal justice system by protecting the poor and marginalized communities.

Policy and Program Overview

The Bail Reforms Program is among the community programs that are affected by the United States criminal justice. The program focuses on ensuring that people accused of a crime are not denied justice because they cannot afford bail. According to Stemen & Olson (2023), bail reforms are classified into three categories. The first category includes reforms that create a presumption of release without bail without removing the possibility of bail. The second category comprises reforms that prohibit unaffordable bail. This reform states that judges should consider a defendant’s ability to pay when they set bail and prohibits judges from imposing bail amounts that defendants cannot afford. The third category includes reforms that eliminate bail for offenses such as misdemeanors.

Implementing these reforms is supported by the argument that bail disadvantages people who lack access to credit and financial resources and the poor, thus creating inequality in the criminal justice system (Albright, 2022). According to a study by Zeng & Minton (2021), the inability to post bail is responsible for the increase in jail populations in the United States because about 500,000 people are unable to post bail, which is approximately 65% of the prison population. This has led to various judicial decisions that impact the acceptance of the reforms in the criminal justice system. For instance, a federal judge in Houston, Texas, made a ruling declaring the bail system unconstitutional and stating that it discriminated against poor defendants. These reforms are supported by the Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act, which is the current public policy related to the bail reforms program. The Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act encourages states to consider alternatives to cash bail to promote fairness in the justice system.

Literature Review Annotated Bibliography

Albright, A. (2022). No money bail, no problems? Trade-offs in a pretrial automatic release program. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/42pbz

This article discusses the impact of bail reforms on pretrial release. The author concludes that the bail program, which includes eliminating bail for defendants who cannot afford bail money, increased unconditional release among defendants from low-income backgrounds and unemployed defendants. The author also concludes that being released without bail could increase the likelihood of misconduct before trial. Therefore, it is vital to consider other alternatives that can substitute bail, such as electronic monitoring or supervision.

Golembeski, C., Bakko, M., Wilson, S., & Carter, T. (2022). U.S. bail, pretrial justice, and charitable bail organizations: Strengthening social equity and advancing politics and public ethics of care. Public Integrity, 25(6), 677-705. https://doi.org/10.1080/10999922.2022.2115219

This article discusses the positive effects of bail reforms. The main findings of the study suggest that pretrial detention and cash bail are the main factors that contribute to incarceration and inequality in the justice system because they contribute to an increase in scenarios where two people charged with the same crimes are treated differently based on their race, economic, and social background. Golembeski et al. (2022) argue that the processes followed in determining cash bail focus on consequences and require applying public ethics and politics of care to enhance social equity, following laws and the provisions in the constitution, and ensuring that there is procedural due process.

Hopkins, B., Bains, C., & Doyle, C. (2024). Principles of pretrial release: Reforming bail without repeating its harm. Journal Of Criminal Law and Criminology, 108(4). https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7639&context=jclc

This article discusses bail reforms and the factors that should be considered to replicate the harms of these reforms. According to Hopkins et al. (2024), bail reforms can enhance the effectiveness of the pretrial system, but they could prolong people’s involvement in the criminal justice system because of pretrial monitoring. Hopkins et al. (2014) also established that the discriminatory practices in the American criminal justice system contribute to mass incarceration and increased pretrial detention costs that can be avoided through bail reforms.

Policy and Program Analysis

The Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act embraces the transformative justice theory. The theory considers a structural approach that examines the leading causes of crime and inequality within economic, political, and social systems. The Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act demonstrates the application of the transformative theory by opposing the incarceration of people who commit a crime by eliminating bail, which could force defendants who cannot afford the bail money to stay in jail as they raise the money or consider serving a jail term equivalent to the bail. The Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act also gives the communities and people more power instead of giving power to institutions to make their own decisions about accountability and violence. The Act requires judges to consider the information they gather about the defendants’ criminal background when setting bail. This increases defendants’ accountability by ensuring that they are accountable for their criminal past by acknowledging the bail money imposed by the judge. It also gives defendants with no criminal background the opportunity to negotiate for bail elimination or a lesser bail amount.

The Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act has been effective in reducing the number of those incarcerated before trial because they cannot afford it since it eliminates bail for people charged with misdemeanors. Green et al. (2023) argue that eliminating bail has reduced the population of people detained before trial due to violations, non-violent felony charges, and misdemeanors. For instance, in Monroe County, the pre-detained jail population decreased by ninety inmates per day after the bail reforms were introduced (New York State Department of Criminal Justice Services,2022). Another study by Kim and Genon (2023) indicated that the jail population in New York was reduced by 25% after the bail reforms were introduced. These statistics suggest that the Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act effectively lowers pretrial detention.

Recommendations for Public Policy

Agencies in Dallas, Texas, could apply the Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act and the Bail Program to prevent inequality in the criminal justice system. According to an article published by Manzano (2023), the highest population of people detained in jails in Texas consists of people who cannot afford the cash bail amount required by the court. The high population of defendants awaiting trial in Texas jails is attributed to the judicial system in the region. For instance, judicial magistrates in Dallas set bail amounts by considering the defendant’s prior convictions and alleged crimes and ignoring their ability to pay (Salhotra, 2024). Therefore, Dallas law enforcement agencies can apply the Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act to ensure the defendant’s ability to pay and the alleged crime are considered when setting bail. The bail program can also prevent the pretrial detainment of defendants, thus preventing the economic and personal development setbacks caused by detainment. Eliminating bail can also enable defendants to continue working as they await trial and continue working after trial when proven innocent.

Conclusion

The criminal justice system in the United States has advanced over the past decade due to reforms that emphasize promoting equality and protecting the needs of defendants. Various reforms, including the bail program, have played a significant role in the advancement. The program focuses on releasing defendants without bail if they cannot afford to pay the bail amount required by the court. Various States across the United States have embraced the program since the establishment of the Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act. The bail program and Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act can help law enforcement agencies in Dallas reduce the population of defendants detained in jails in Dallas who have been detained because they cannot afford bail and promote fairness when dealing with financially challenged defendants.

References

Albright, A. (2022). No money bail, no problems? Trade-offs in a pretrial automatic release program. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/42pbz

Green, M., Altheimer, I., & Robertson, N. (2023). The Impact of Bail Reform: What the Data Shows. Rochester Institute of Technology | RIT. https://www.rit.edu/liberalarts/sites/rit.edu.liberalarts/files/docs/CPSI%20Working%20Paper_2023.04_Bail%20Reform%20Data.pdf

Hopkins, B., Bains, C., & Doyle, C. (2024). Principles of Pretrial Release: Reforming Bail Without Repeating its Harm. Journal Of Criminal Law and Criminology, 108(4). https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7639&context=jclc

Manzano, N. Z. (2023, July 5). The bail problem is bigger in Texas. The Bail Project. https://bailproject.org/policy/the-bail-problem-is-bigger-in-texas/

New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. (2022). New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. https://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/ojsa/jail_pop_y.pdf

Salhotra, P. (2024, January 8). Legal challenge to Dallas County’s cash bail system ends after U.S. Supreme Court declines to step in. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/08/supreme-court-cash-bail-dallas-county/

Stemen, D., & Olson, D. (2023). Is bail reform causing an increase in crime? CrimRxiv. https://doi.org/10.21428/cb6ab371.4d3316b0

Zeng, Z., & Minton, T. (2021). Jail Inmates in 2019. Bureau of Justice Statistics. https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/ji19.pdf

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Question

Write an 1100-word report evaluating a program related to a public policy in your area. Your report should include the following information with supportive evidence from your research and the following sections and subheadings:

Evaluating Public Policy Programs – An In-Depth Analysis and Assessment

Policy and Program Overview
Summarize the public policy and program you selected. Explain the connection between the program and then put at least 3 scholarly and peer-reviewed resources related to the selected public policy and program. Use the EBSCO website, for peer review. Evaluate the data from your research to identify trends or decisions in public policy.
Literature Review Annotated Bibliography
Create an annotated bibliography that is related to the public policy and program you selected. Summarize your findings.
Policy and Program Analysis
Interpret public policy using criminal justice theory. Explain how criminal justice theories have informed this policy.
Explain how effective the program has been at achieving its goals. Compare similar programs and trends at the state and federal levels.
Recommendations for Public Policy
Recommend how agencies in the Dallas, TX area could apply public policy to improve justice and the efficacy of the program.

Evaluating Public Policy Programs – An In-Depth Analysis and Assessment