Why do federal judges jail >75% of people before trial? A groundbreaking new report by me and my Federal Criminal Justice Clinic, featured in USA Today, explains why: freedomdenied.law.uchicago.edu [1/6]
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Alison Siegler
@SieglerAlison
Prof and Founding Director of the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic . Views my own. “Mercy & empathy are great threats to an unjust society” -G. Doyle
Joined January 2020
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“Prosecutors treat these white-collar cases totally differently than other cases,” Prof. told ’ about Bankman-Fried’s unusal pretrail bond. “There’s a lack of equity in all of this.”
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Despite his huge bond, SBF was set free when most people are jailed. Prosecutors must stop asking for financial conditions of release that people can’t afford, and federal judges must stop illegally jailing people when they can’t pay. [8/8]
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The right question isn’t, should SBF go free? Rather we should ask why 118,000 human beings—most of whom are poor people of color—are currently locked in jail pre-trial in the federal system. [7/8]
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Prosecutors bear the blame for these inequities, too. Federal prosecutors ask judges to lock 74% of people in jail pre-trial—they request jailing in 3 out of 4 cases. Yet prosecutors begged the judge to release SBF, accused of “stealing billions of dollars.” [6/8]
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We also found that judges disproportionately jail people of color for poverty. 95% of the time when federal judges imposed a secured bond, the arrestee was a person of color. Unlike SBF, many were not released. [5/8]
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Jailing people simply because they can’t make bail violates federal law. My Clinic’s Freedom Denied report found that federal judges jail people who are too poor to pay for their freedom in a staggering 36% of cases with $ conditions. Report here: freedomdenied.law.uchicago.edu. [4/8]
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SBF’s release on a $250 million bond underscores the deep inequities of a federal pretrial jailing system that hits poor people and people of color the hardest. 90% of federal arrestees can’t afford a lawyer, let alone pay their way out of jail. [3/8]
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As I said in the article, “If we’re comfortable releasing somebody accused of a crime of this magnitude, that should really make us question why we’re locking so many people in jail pending trial who are accused of far less serious crimes.” [2/8]
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I spoke with about what SBF’s release on bail says about a system where the vast majority of people are jailed. Full article here: latimes.com/california/sto [1/8]
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For the non-SBFs of the world, 75% of defendants are detained pre-trial
A new report found that judges were routinely unlawfully jailing poor people and imposing excessive financial conditions, with people of color significantly more likely to be jailed unlawfully
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SBF got out of jail on a $250 million bond using his parents' house. But it's a faculty home on-campus. They rent the land from Stanford.
This isn't how it works for federal defendants who are not white and wealthy
75% are detained awaiting trial
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SBF is out of jail on a $250 million bail bond, which prosecutors called the biggest ever. His parents had to pledge their $3.5 million house to secure it. But they aren’t homeowners in the usual sense, reports .
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For Valena Beety, AB ’02, JD ’06, Profs Geoffrey Stone and Herschella Conyers “were amazing mentors and role models for me when I was in Law School, and they still are today.” Read the profile: buff.ly/3XpqxIM
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John Copacino is always right!
After 13-year-old boy's fatal shooting, legal experts say deadly force typically can't be used to defend property nbcnews.com/news/us-news/1 via
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Our Freedom Denied Report is being highlighted in a series of posts on @VolokhC! In a five-part series, @UChicagolaw Federal Criminal Justice Clinic student @LessnickJaden and I summarize the federal jailing crisis and how to fix it. (Report here: freedomdenied.law.uchicago.edu)
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Part 5 of our series on about the federal jailing crisis is out! In this final installment, we tackle the issue of federal judges jailing people who are simply too poor to pay for their freedom: reason.com/volokh/2023/01. Read our full report here: freedomdenied.law.uchicago.edu
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Excited to announce that Part 4 of our series about the federal jailing crisis is up! Check it out for our study’s findings about a major source of racially disparate jailing in federal drug cases: reason.com/volokh/2023/01
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Our Freedom Denied Report is being highlighted in a series of posts on @VolokhC! In a five-part series, @UChicagolaw Federal Criminal Justice Clinic student @LessnickJaden and I summarize the federal jailing crisis and how to fix it. (Report here: freedomdenied.law.uchicago.edu)
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Stay tuned for the final two parts of our series, set to be released over the next few days! You can also read our full report here: freedomdenied.law.uchicago.edu
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In Part 3, we describe how federal judges regularly lock poor people in jail without lawyers at their Initial Appearance hearing, despite federal law requiring the provision of counsel—a nationwide access-to-counsel crisis. Read Part 3 here:
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In Part 2, we detail how judges fail to follow the legal standard at Initial Appearance hearings. As a result, judges routinely jail people unlawfully, and do so disproportionately in cases involving people of color. Read Part 2 here:
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In Part 1, we describe how the federal system jails 75% of those awaiting trial, the result of a deeply ingrained ‘culture of detention’ that often contravenes federal law. Read Part 1 here:
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Our Freedom Denied Report is being highlighted in a series of posts on ! In a five-part series, Federal Criminal Justice Clinic student and I summarize the federal jailing crisis and how to fix it. (Report here: freedomdenied.law.uchicago.edu)
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“We conducted this study to understand why the federal system jails 75% of those pending trial ... We discovered that federal judges routinely lock people in jail in violation of the law,” write Prof. and Jaden Lessnick, ’23.
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Our team just published an analysis detailing criminal legal reform halfway through the Biden administration. 1/3
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Bail, dairy, pot, Covid: Here are your weekly non-political political stories. with
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Check out my latest article: Why Do Federal Judges Jail So Many People Before Trial? What We Learned from Courtwatching linkedin.com/pulse/why-do-f via
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Federal prosecutors: Please start agreeing to compassionate release motions. Your continued obstruction of CR thwarts Congress intent for it to be more widely used. So many people sitting in fed prison who can be released safely, including several of our clinic's clients.
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The federal prison population is continuing its growth under the Biden administration, undoing seven prior years of downsizing.
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This is an extremely important report to read. The failure of judges to take seriously their most basic obligation to protect the rights of poor people is an enormous stain on the profession, on the legal system, and on our society.
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Why do federal judges jail >75% of people before trial? A groundbreaking new report by me and my Federal Criminal Justice Clinic, featured in USA Today, explains why: freedomdenied.law.uchicago.edu [1/6]
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Check out this groundbreaking report by and her Federal Criminal Justice Clinic discussing why federal judges jail >75% of people before trial. Read about it in buff.ly/3uMLVL6 and read the full report here: buff.ly/3Ft0pVo
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Prof. spoke on about a “culture of detention” she and students in the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic found in the federal court system and outlined in a new report.
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So proud of my friend and the work of her legal clinic to bring light to this horrible, unjust practice that tries to obliterate the foundational principle of presumed innocence.
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Why do federal judges jail >75% of people before trial? A groundbreaking new report by me and my Federal Criminal Justice Clinic, featured in USA Today, explains why: freedomdenied.law.uchicago.edu [1/6]
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A 1984 law that changed the federal bail system to address crime committed by people released pending trial has been "wildly misunderstood and misapplied," writes . in 1983, 24% of arrestees were jailed pretrial; in 2019, 75% were
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While parsing the looming impact of the IL SAFE-T Act on bail locally, consider the elephant in the room revealed in this new report from of on federal court compliance with the US Bail Reform Act. freedomdenied.law.uchicago.edu
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Paige Roff (3L) argued the Fed Crim Defense Clinic’s debut case in the 7th Cir. this week. She did our client and proud. When I miss being an AFPD I think of how many of my students will represent indigent clients even more fiercely than I. It gives me great hope.
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Our report highlights several ways judges can fix the federal jailing crisis. View our recommendations here: freedomdenied.law.uchicago.edu [5/5]
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Data show that it isn’t necessary to jail so many people before trial because 99% of people released are not rearrested. Meanwhile, families and communities suffer dire consequences. [4/5]
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Judges illegally jailed 12% of the people who were detained at their Initial Appearance. These illegal detentions fell on people of color at twice the rate of white arrestees. [3/5]
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Judges routinely jail people simply because prosecutors ask them to, without requiring any legal justification. When prosecutors asked judges to jail someone at the Initial Appearance hearing, judges complied >99% of the time. [2/5]
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A final striking finding from our Freedom Denied Report: widespread violations of the bail law by federal judges, often at the behest of prosecutors. freedomdenied.law.uchicago.edu [1/5]
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