The Effect of Pre-Arraignment Legal Representation on Criminal Case Outcomes / Johanna Lacoe, Brett Fischer, Steven Raphael.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lacoe, Johanna.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Fischer, Brett.

Raphael, Steven.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w31289.

NBER working paper series no. w31289

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2023.

Summary:

Low-income individuals arrested on criminal charges face disproportionately high rates of pretrial detention and conviction. We study a novel approach to addressing this inequity: providing low-income individuals with access to legal counsel immediately following their arrest. Focusing on a pilot program in a large urban county, we estimate the causal impact of early representation by a public defender on release and case outcomes, leveraging quasi-random variation in access to counsel pre-arraignment. Low-income individuals who met with a public defender shortly after arrest were 28 percentage points more likely to be released pretrial, and 36 percent more likely to see their cases dismissed, relative to otherwise similar individuals who would first meet with a public defender at their arraignment. These results suggest that providing timely access to legal representation could improve release and case outcomes for public defender clients.

Notes:

Print version record

May 2023.