Key recommendations -- Methodology -- I. Background -- II. Pretrial detention in California -- II. Bail leads to jailing people who are not guilty -- III. Bail and jail result in an unfair justice system -- IV. Bail devastates poor and middle-income defendants and households -- V. Does bail in California serve the legitimate purposes of pretrial detention? -- VI. Profile-based risk assessment -- VII. A better way: increased cite and release and individualized risk assessment -- IX. International human rights law.

Pre-trial detention refers to the period when a person, after being arrested, is detained so as to determine the nature of the offences and the characterization of the charges. This notion is part and parcel of the legal proceedings of a criminal investigation and aims at striking a fragile balance between protecting the State and respecting individual freedoms. Lots of examples can be quoted to illustrate the various pre-trial detention modalities in common law and civil law traditions, including the duration of custody; custody rights; right to silence; right to the presence of a lawyer; modalities and control of pre-trial detention; and procedures in case of wrongful detention. This book makes an important contribution to the newly-researched topic of pre-trial detention from a theoretical and empirical point of view. Papers alternatively consider various issues: they analyse the philosophical principles and policies underlying pre-trial detention and look at the different forms it takes according to several countries; on a more technical and pragmatic level, they raise the question of the use of an appropriate terminology and the problem of translation that may arise from the differences between the studied legal systems. Finally, they consider the checks and balances mechanisms put in place to limit the negative effects of the measures restricting liberty. This volume contains a selection of contributions by academics specialized in law and comparative criminal procedure, political science, history, sociology, linguistics, and legal translation, and offers a comparative analysis of countries with differing legal traditions.

It is estimated that in the course of a year, approximately 10 million people will pass through pre-trial detention. Although presently, no adequately functioning criminal justice system can do entirely without detaining any suspects, pre-trial detention thus remains problematic in the context of human rights, the detainee's family, and society. This volume therefore offers a wide variety of topics that are relevant to pre-trial detention. The themes discussed include: developments that affect the application of pre-trial detention; relevant international and national human rights standards, as well as monitoring systems; pre-trial detention of specific groups; and alternatives to pre-trial detention. Moreover, this book contains chapters on 21 individual countries from around the world. On the basis of these, the book not only examines whether and how international human rights standards on detention are influencing national law and practice, and the extent to which international norm

Arbitrary arrest and detention have been the most consistent violations of fundamental individual human rights throughout history. The world's major criminal justice systems reveal the historical struggle between monarchs and dictators on the one hand, and advocates of the supremacy of the rule of law on the other. This struggle has been over the power to arbitrarily arrest and detain persons whether they be accused of common or polical crimes. Preventive Detention: A Comparative and International Law Perspective seeks to reconcile theory and practice by selecting studies representing different legal systems, thus advancing the multi-disciplinary understanding of the application of international and regional human rights norms in criminal justice systems.

Examines the causes for mass incarceration of Americans and calls for the reform of the bail system. Traces the history of bail, how it has come to be an oppressive tool of the courts, and makes recommendations for reforming the bail system and alleviating the mass incarceration problem.