The Handbook on Pretrial Justice covers the front end of the criminal legal system from pretrial diversion to pretrial detention or release. Often overlooked, the decisions made at the earliest phases of the criminal legal system have huge implications for defendants and their families, the community, and the system itself, and impact the entire criminal legal system.

This collection of essays and reports of original research explores the complexities of pretrial decisions and practices and includes chapters in the following broad areas: the consequences of detention, pretrial decision-making, community supervision, and risk assessment. The book also includes a section looking at pretrial justice outside of the U.S. Each chapter summarizes what is known, identifies the gaps in the research, and discusses the theoretical, empirical, and policy implications of the research findings.

This is Volume 6 of the American Society of Criminology's Division on Corrections and Sentencing handbook series. The handbooks provide in-depth coverage of seminal and topical issues around sentencing and correction for scholars, students, practitioners, and policymakers.

Christine S. Scott-Hayward is an Associate Professor in the School of Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Emergency Management at California State University, Long Beach. Her research emphasizes the practical implications of criminal laws and policies and currently focuses on bail and sentencing. She is the author or co-author of numerous articles, published in both law reviews and social science journals, and a book, Punishing Poverty: How Bail and Pretrial Detention Fuel Inequalities in the Criminal Justice System. Prior to joining the faculty at CSU Long Beach, she was a post-doctoral research scholar at Columbia Law School and clerked for the Honorable James Orenstein in the Eastern District of New York. She is a member of the New York Bar. From 2006 to 2009, she was a research associate at the Vera Institute of Justice, where she worked in the Center on Sentencing and Corrections and on the Prosecution and Racial Justice project.

Jennifer E. Copp is an Associate Professor in the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University and Director of FSU's Institute for Jail Policy and Research. Her recent work examines how incarceration, and other forms of system contact, influence future behavior, family life, and child well-being, and several ongoing projects relate to decisions made during the pretrial stage of the criminal justice system. She has published extensively in sociology and criminology outlets, has consulted with state and local criminal justice agencies, and has received funding from the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the MacArthur Foundation, and Pew Charitable Trusts, in addition to multiple state agencies.

Stephen Demuth is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Bowling Green State University. His research examines how the criminal legal system disproportionately punishes people of color and the economically disadvantaged and hurts their future life chances. He is on the Board of Directors for the Pretrial Justice Institute and has served as an expert witness in civil rights lawsuits brought by Civil Rights Corps, American Civil Liberties Union, and Southern Poverty Law Center.