Each of the 55,000 criminal defendants who annually enter the federal court system must have a bail hearing before a judicial officer, usually a magistrate. This hearing is important because the magistrate decides the bail conditions under which the defendant may obtain release prior to trial. Pretrial release practices in federal district courts were reviewed to determine if the bail system is used to cause a high rate of appearance without unnecessarily detaining defendants.

Judicial officers have substantial discretion in making bail decisions. As a result, they set widely varying, and in some cases overly restrictive, release conditions because they use bail for differing purposes and weigh the criteria of the Bail Reform Act differently. Consequently, some defendants are jailed, have to pay to be released, or are otherwise restricted while other similarly charged defendants are not so restricted. Judicial officers need more complete and reliable information when making bail decisions. The federal judiciary has not established a system to provide judicial officers with feedback on the results of their bail decisions in relation to the results of other judicial officers and to monitor and evaluate the bail process. The usefulness of pretrial services agencies' (PSA's) supervision and social services functions has not been demonstrated; and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts' evaluation of PSA's will be useful but limited.

Status Legend:

Review Pending-GAO has not yet assessed implementation status.

Open-Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned, or actions that partially satisfy the intent of the recommendation have been taken.

Closed-implemented-Actions that satisfy the intent of the recommendation have been taken.

Closed-not implemented-While the intent of the recommendation has not been satisfied, time or circumstances have rendered the recommendation invalid.

• Review Pending
• Open
• Closed - implemented
• Closed - not implemented

Recommendation for Executive Action

Recommendation: The Chief Justice, in his capacity as Chairman of the Judicial Conference, should work with the Conference of the United States, the Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, and the Federal Judicial Center to develop and implement a program to assist judicial officers in making sound and consistent bail decisions. He should also work with the Judicial Conference and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts to: (1) develop a system to monitor and evaluate bail activities; (2) provide information to judicial officers on the results of bail decisions so they may evaluate their performance against that of other judicial officers; and (3) receive periodic reports on the status and problems in the bail area to assist in developing improvements in the bail process. The Judicial Conference should provide the means for judicial officers to have more complete and accurate information on defendants when making bail decisions.

Agency Affected:

Status: Closed

Comments: Please call 202/512-6100 for additional information.