Bail Reform

supervised release at Bronx Community Solutions
We design and implement bail reform strategies to reduce the use of jail and increase the fairness of the justice system.

On any given day, people who haven’t been found guilty of any crime are detained across the U.S. because of an inability to post bail. This imposes enormous costs: for taxpayers, for detainees and their families, and for their communities.

The Center for Court Innovation works to promote bail reform in a number of ways. We operate supervised release programs that provide pretrial supervision and voluntary social services as an alternative to detention. We design and evaluate risk assessment tools and advocate for the careful and ethical expansion of their use to improve pretrial decision-making. We produce comprehensive recommendations for simplifying New York City’s bail payment process. And we provide research and strategic support to the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform which put reducing pretrial detention at the center of its recommendations for safely reducing the city’s jail population and closing the Rikers Island jail facility.

For additional details on how bail is a financial burden for those with limited means, see our Fines and Fees resource page.

Initiatives

  • Bronx Community Solutions

    Bronx Community Solutions provides community-based alternatives to jail, restores community relationships, and helps participants avoid further criminal justice involvement.

  • Brooklyn Justice Initiatives

    Brooklyn Justice Initiatives seeks to improve how the centralized criminal court in Brooklyn responds to misdemeanor and felony cases.

  • Staten Island Justice Center

    The Staten Island Justice Center seeks to reduce crime and incarceration by providing court-involved participants with services and by engaging the community in prevention programs.

  • Price of Justice Initiative

    The Price of Justice Initiative helps jurisdictions address the disparate impact of fines and fees on defendants who cannot afford them.

  • Rethinking Rikers Island

    By providing support to the Independent Commission on Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform, we're aiding in the effort to reduce New York City’s jail population and close Rikers Island.

  • Supervised Release Program

    The Supervised Release Program reduces the number of people held in jail simply because they cannot afford bail.

Publications & Digital Media

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News

  • ‘A Ticking Time Bomb’: City Jails Are Crowded Again, Stoking COVID Fears

    March 10, 2021
    The New York Times

    Citing our report on New York City's jail population under COVID-19 and our forthcoming lookback on the city and one year of bail reform, The New York Times reports city jails are now more full than they were before the start of the pandemic. The Times found unsafe conditions and the fear of contracting the virus are fueling a mental health crisis behind bars, with rising rates of self-harm among people detained.

  • America’s Biggest City Was Hit Hard By COVID-19. Its Jails Are Filling Up Again

    November 30, 2020
    The Appeal

    New York City’s jail population is close to reaching pre-pandemic levels. The Appeal reports, "The city’s jail population, now over 4,700, is largely the result of a growing number of people held awaiting trial. According to a recent report by the Center for Court Innovation, between the end of April, when the city took emergency COVID-related decarceration measures, and Nov. 1, the pretrial population incarcerated in city jails has increased by more than 28 percent."

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We work with reformers around the world.

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