Counsel at First Appearances (CAFA)
The Counsel at First Appearances (CAFA) Project is a BIDS initiative to guarantee counsel at first appearances for all of our clients across each of our 13 trial-level offices. This initiative is consistent with evidence-based practices that demonstrate CAFA to be instrumental in protecting pretrial constitutional rights, reducing pretrial incarceration, and helping to ensure that conditions of release are the least restrictive. The practice of pretrial detention, or the detaining of individuals who are legally innocent, has fueled a sharp increase in Kansas jail populations in recent years. From 2013 to 2019, Kansas had the fifth largest growth in jail population in the country with the result that Kansas now jails nearly as many people every year as the state of New York, including New York City[1]. To put that into perspective, the state of New York has nearly 20 million residents, while KS has just under three million, or about one-seventh the population of New York.
Research has consistently found pretrial detention to be harmful for individuals in the criminal legal system, both in terms of process (e.g., introducing barriers to attorney-client communication) and case outcome (e.g., harsher sentences than those out on bond).[2] This same body of research also highlights the negative downstream consequences for these defendants; even after relatively short stays in pretrial detention (e.g., two or three days) their risk of losing their homes, employment, and family connections increases sharply.[3] Moreover, pretrial detention has been shown in some cases to have a criminogenic impact, meaning that its use may make individuals more likely to commit future crimes. Counterintuitively then, pretrial detention may make communities less safe.[4]
When attorneys are present at first appearances, they are able to protect the constitutional rights of Kansans accused of crimes, to keep communities safe, and reduce the community expense of pretrial incarceration. Our own preliminary data bear this out. We are finding that when attorneys are present to represent their clients at this critical stage, they are able to argue successfully for more affordable bond amounts and even for the imposition of Own Recognizance bonds, meaning clients are able to secure their freedom without having to pay thousands of dollars to a bond company. This means more Kansans are able to remain housed, employed, and fulfill their role in their families and communities while they are legally innocent. As this project develops, we will add more results and findings to this page.
[1] Zeng, Z. & Minton, T.D. (2021). Census of Jails, 2005-2019
[2] ACLU of Kansas Hot Topic Series: Bail: Wealth-based Pretrial Release at 4.
[3] Pretrial Justice Task Force Report to the Kansas Supreme Court, 12; ACLU of Kansas Hot Topic Series: Bail: Wealth-based Pretrial Release at 4; NLDA at 5, n.26
[4] Smith, S. S. (2022). Pretrial detention, pretrial release, & public safety. Arnold Ventures.