Every year, many defendants miss their court hearings in DC, often triggering serious consequences, including warrants being issued for the defendants’ arrest. Some of the reasons for missing a court hearing may be addressed with the right type of reminder. The Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia (PSA) and The Lab @ DC designed reminders based on behavioral insights to increase court appearance rates. The designs are informing how PSA communicates with defendants going forward.
The outside of the District’s H. Carl Moultrie Courthouse. (Credit: The Lab @ DC)
Why is this issue important in DC?
Legal cases often require multiple court appearances and missing just one can lead to an expensive fine or a bench warrant for a person’s arrest. In DC, failure to appear in court is one of the most common reasons for arrest, representing 20% of total felony arrest charges in 2016 and 2017.
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What did we do?
We collaborated with PSA to redesign the reminders PSA sends to individuals who have scheduled court appearances (excluding those who have past court appearances related with their case). In creating the reminders, we wanted to first understand the reasons for failure to appear in court. So, our design process drew from behavioral science principles, focus group discussions with defendants, and interviews with PSA staff and Public Defender Service (PDS) attorneys.
What have we learned?
During interviews with PSA pretrial services staff and PDS attorneys, we learned that some of the most heavily cited reasons for failure to appear in court are the cost of travel, planning, confusion about a court date, and a lack of understanding about the serious consequences of failing to appear.
What comes next?
We originally planned a randomized evaluation to test whether the redesigned reminders encouraged court appearances. However, implementing random assignment did not align with plans for launching a new client management system. As a result, we discontinued the planned study. PSA is planning to continue an internal evaluation using the revised reminders with defendants.