Homelessness and pretrial detention predict unfavorable outcomes in the plea bargaining process

The present research examined homelessness, race/ethnicity, and pretrial detention in the plea bargaining process.

We predicted that homelessness, Hispanic ethnicity, and pretrial detention would be positively associated with unfavorable plea bargaining outcomes.

We coded defendant characteristics and plea bargaining variables for a random sample (N = 500) of criminal cases from 2016 in Santa Cruz County, California. We analyzed the associations between these variables using binary logistic and ordinal regressions.

Homeless defendants were much more likely to be held in pretrial detention (odds ratio [OR] = 5.05), less likely to post bail (OR = 0.17), more likely to accept a "credit for time served" plea offer (OR = 2.26), more likely to have cases dismissed as part of a plea bargain (OR = 5.63), and more likely to receive a longer custodial sentence (OR = 2.60) than housed defendants. Defendants who did not post bail received longer custodial sentences than those who did (OR = 3.40), and pretrial detention mediated the relationship between homelessness and longer custodial sentences. White-versus-Hispanic comparisons were not statistically significant.

Homelessness and pretrial detention were associated with significant adverse effects on plea-bargained case outcomes. Findings regarding homeless defendants suggest that they have divergent enough experiences from other defendants to make them a distinct defendant population whose specific experiences warrant further study. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).