Cohort 2025
Huntsville Bail Fund
Assessing the Impact of Prolonged Pretrial Detention
Huntsville, AL
Alabama has the most dangerous and deadliest prisons in the country. People incarcerated in Alabama prisons lack livable conditions and access to necessary care. Despite overcrowding, incarceration rates in Alabama have been increasing, with jails and prisons housing Black residents disproportionately. Research has shown that pretrial policies and the increasing use of detention before conviction have driven jail growth. The pretrial population is held in jail despite not having been found guilty of a crime. Being held pretrial can have disastrous consequences on a person’s life, including the loss of employment, benefits, and housing.
With Catalyst grant funding, the Huntsville Bail Fund will interview people who have been affected by pretrial detention to measure the consequences that come with it. It plans to supplement the interviews with data collected through court observations on how long it takes for court actors to make the life-altering decision to hold people pretrial at court hearings, and with administrative data analysis to assess how long people spend in jail pretrial, including how pretrial processes and time served differ for different demographics.
