Pretrial Release of Felony Defendants, 1992. Executive Summary


U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Bureau of Justice Statistics

Executive Summary
Pretrial Release of Felony Defendants, 1992.

About 1 in 12 felony defendants released by State courts absconded before
their trials and were still missing a year later, according to a Department
of Justice study released on November 21, 1994.
     
About 63% of all felony defendants are released, on bond or otherwise,
before court disposition.  Among those defendants already on pretrial
release when arrested, 56 percent are released once again.

The percentages of the state court defendants who were released during
a 1992 study period were as follows:

     Type of felony        Percent released

     Murder . . . . . . . . . 24%
     Rape . . . . . . . . . . 48
     Robbery  . . . . . . . . 50
     Burglary . . . . . . . . 51
     Drug trafficking . . . . 66
     Theft  . . . . . . . . . 67
     Assault. . . . . . . . . 68
     Other property crimes. . 71
     Weapons offenses . . . . 71
     Other crimes . . . . . . 71
     Felony driving offenses  73

The judicial decision to grant pretrial release was strongly related to the
gravity of the offense and the background of the defendant.  Six percent
of all felony defendants were held without bail, including 40% of the
murder defendants. Another 37% of the murder defendants were held
because they did not post bail.  

Defendants with a prior criminal record or with a history of failing to
appear and those on probation or on parole were substantially more likely
than other defendants to be detained.

Among the released defendants, 27% had at least one prior felony
conviction, including 9% who had a prior conviction for a violent felony.

About a third of those released were rearrested on a new charge, failed to
appear in court as scheduled or committed some other violation that
resulted in the revocation of their pretrial release.

A bench warrant was issued for the arrest of 1 in 4 released defendants
because they failed to appear in court as scheduled.

Among the released defendants who had failed to appear at least once on
a previous charge, 38% had a bench warrant issued against them because
they failed to appear for trial on the current charge.

Approximately 14% of all released felony defendants were rearrested
before trial.  Ten percent were rearrested for a new felony.  Of the
released defendants who had multiple prior convictions, 30% were
arrested again.

Case processing progressed more rapidly for detained defendants than for
released defendants.  The median time from arrest to disposition for
detained defendants was 46 days, compared to 118 days for released
defendants.  About 90% of the felony defendants were put on trial within
1 year of their arrest, and about two-thirds were convicted. 

The study tracked a sample representing the estimated 55,246 men and
women charged with a felony during May 1992 in the Nation's 75 most
populous counties, which accounted for about 37% of the U.S. population
and almost 50% of all crimes reported to law enforcement agencies.  The
data were gathered as part of the National Pretrial Reporting Program,
sponsored by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). 

Single copies of the bulletin "Pretrial Release of Felony Defendants,
1992" (NCJ-148818), written by BJS statisticians Brian A. Reaves, Ph.D.,
and Jacob Perez, Ph.D., may be obtained from the BJS Clearinghouse,
Box 179, Annapolis Junction, Maryland 20701-0179.  The telephone
number is 1-800-732-3277.  Fax orders to 410-792-4358.  To receive a
fax copy of the complete 16-page report call 301-216-1827.  Orders can also
be sent via email to askncjrs@ncjrs.aspensys.com.