About the Book

Do pretrial release programs, initiated and now operated by a range of nonprofit organizations to redress the inequalities of the bail system, affect the administration of justice? Specifically, do they reduce the barriers to justice often faced by poor and minority defendants? This ethnographic study of four pretrial release programs reveals the often unintended consequences of ‘outsourcing justice’ to social service nonprofits.

I explore the intimate workings of pretrial release programs to show how contract caseworkers now play a critical role at nearly every stage of the adjudicative process. These well meaning personnel also risk compromising the traditional adversarial processes in the name of treatment in ways that are detrimental to defendants. In the process, I raise new questions about the promise and challenge of these new partners in crime.