Low-Level, But High Speed?: Assessing Pretrial Detention Effects on the Timing and Content of Misdemeanor Versus Felony Guilty Pleas

Pre-trial detention can significantly influence a defendant’s decision to plead guilty, often because the benefits of freedom outweigh the consequences associated with having a criminal record. Most research regarding pre-trial detention and guilty pleas has been focused on felony defendants, but pre-trial detention may actually have a more significant effect on misdemeanants’ decision to plead guilty. Because misdemeanors typically lead to non-carceral sentences, the cost of pre-trial detention is usually greater than the formal sanctions received. This study analyzes the “time-to-plea” and penal outcomes of over 165,000 defendants in Miami-Dade County, Florida, to determine the effect of pre-trial detention on the decision of misdemeanants to plead guilty. The results indicated that the pace of guilty pleas is accelerated by pre-trial detention, and the lengthier the pre-trial detention, the quicker the case is solved. This data also indicates how and why prosecutors may use pre-trial detention as a means to coerce defendants into pleading guilty. Although pleas may be the best or most beneficial choice for some misdemeanants, pleas can also serve as an avenue through which the adversarial process is compromised.

“Temporal considerations not only suggest that misdemeanants detained for a longer portion of time will plead guilty at high rates, but also that they will do so faster. As such, there are frontend benefits to pleading guilty quicker, with diminishing returns thereafter. Since ‘cases [are] always pled out’, the question is not whether a defendant will plead guilty, but when.” p. 1319 (internal citations omitted, alterations in original)