The Federal Detention Crisis: Causes and Effects

In 1990, the Judicial Conference of the United States Committee on Criminal Law and Probation Administration declared a "national pretrial detention crisis" which was limiting the effectiveness of the federal court system. Changes in law and policy which brought about the crisis in detention, and its impact on the Federal criminal justice system, are explained. The Bail Reform Act of 1984, the "War on Drugs" and other factors are cited as contributors to the Federal detention crisis which put defendants in jail at a faster rate than the system could handle them.