- November 4, 2021
- Samuel Johnson, Tanisha Pruitt, PhD, Piet van Lier
Most Ohioans believe that we all deserve a justice system that treats everyone fairly, no matter how much money we have or the color of our skin. But on any given day in Ohio, as many as 12,600 people are incarcerated before they have even gone to trial. Local judges have increased the number of people held in jail pretrial, from fewer than 3,000 in 1978. Today, those jailed pretrial often outnumber individuals serving jail time post-conviction, even as overall crime rates have fallen. Excessive rates of pretrial detention have contributed to growing concerns about the effectiveness and constitutionality of the current bail system.