Each year, millions of Americans experience an initial appearance in court after their arrest, but typically without a lawyer. While people have a constitutional right to a defense attorney for their case, not all states protect this right for initial appearances where judges make decisions about bail and pretrial detention. When individuals do not have an attorney at initial appearances, judges are more likely to: 

• Order expensive cash bail amounts  

• Order or a lot of pretrial release conditions for release 

• Order the individual to remain in jail.  

These harsh early outcomes create significant racial and ethnic disparities nearly immediately.  

We collaborate with defense attorneys, jails, and courts to improve these early hearings by developing and implementing processes allowing defense attorneys to meet with individuals prior to initial appearances, represent them at the hearing, and meet with them after their hearing if they are remanded on bail. This work also involves partnering with defense attorneys and community-providers to develop processes that collect more holistic information about a person’s life circumstances.  

By humanizing people as more than their charges, defense attorneys can advocate for faster, less costly, and less restrictive release decisions at these early hearings, getting individuals out of the system quickly, reducing unnecessary jail time and the disproportionate harm faced by communities of color.