Getting people to show up in court can be difficult

Time -   When people are accused of breaking the law—from something minor like trespassing to a more serious offense like robbery—the next step is typically a court hearing. This is the beginning of the process to determine whether they are guilty, and if so, what the consequences will be.

Getting people to show up in court is a difficult challenge. We need to persuade someone who is accused of breaking the law to take time out of their life to face the consequences—not a pleasant task. It’s probably not surprising, then, that many miss their court hearings.

The standard approach in the U.S. is to lock people up, requiring cash bail for release. About 30% of people currently incarcerated in the U.S. haven’t been convicted yet—they are simply in jail awaiting trial. Cash bail entails paying part or all of the bail amount so that a defendant can go home; if they show up in court, they will get most of that amount back. Of course, low-income defendants are less able to pay, which means this system often punishes poverty. A major barrier to reforming the status quo is that people worry that defendants can’t be trusted to show up for their hearings and face punishment without these measures.

The legal system provides big incentives to show up for your court date. If you miss it, not only will you lose any money you put down as bail, but the court will typically grant a warrant for your arrest, and you could face new, often more serious charges. It could also mean more severe consequences if you’re ever arrested for another offense: since courts consider past “failures to appear” (FTAs) when deciding whether someone is a flight risk, missing a hearing today can mean pretrial detention (time in jail) in future cases. The best data suggest that 23% of felony defendants who are released pretrial still don’t show up for court, for a variety of reason