Objectives

The aims of this study are to test the effectiveness of court date reminders on failure to appear (FTA) and to test their effectiveness based on demographics and case characteristics.

Methods

Randomized controlled trial with four treatment groups: (1) no call; (2) reminder call made 3 days in advance of the appearance; (3) reminder call made the same day of the appearance; and (4) reminder call made both 3 days in advance and the same day. Participants included individuals released before their first appearance (arraignment) for which the provider had a phone number at which to make a reminder attempt. Some demographic information is available (race, sex, and age) and some case characteristics are available (the time from arrest to arraignment, and charges).

Results

Using an intent-to-treat (ITT) analysis, reminders reduced the FTA rate by 37%. The results suggest the timing of the reminders was not important. People of color benefited from the reminders more than white participants. Participants with a longer time between the arrest and the arraignment benefited more than participants with a shorter time between the arrest and arraignment.

Conclusions

Court-date reminders may reduce racial disparities in FTA rates. Future research should attempt to include measures of perceptions of procedural justice and other measures of socioeconomic status. The current study is limited by small disparities in intended and attempted treatment, and lack of data on perceptions of procedural justice, and socioeconomic status.

中文翻译：

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审前案件处理期间实时开庭日期提醒电话的好处

目标

本研究的目的是测试未出庭日期提醒 (FTA) 的有效性，并根据人口统计和案件特征测试其有效性。

方法

四个治疗组的随机对照试验：（1）不打电话；(2) 出场前3天的提醒电话；(3) 当天出现的提醒电话；(4) 提前 3 天和当天发出的提醒电话。参与者包括在他们第一次出庭（传讯）之前被释放的个人，提供者有一个电话号码可以尝试提醒他们。一些人口统计信息（种族、性别和年龄）和一些案件特征（从逮捕到传讯的时间和指控）是可用的。

结果

使用意向治疗 (ITT) 分析，提醒将 FTA 率降低了 37%。结果表明提醒的时间并不重要。有色人种比白人参与者更能从提醒中受益。逮捕和传讯之间时间较长的参与者比逮捕和传讯之间时间较短的参与者受益更多。

结论

法庭日期提醒可能会减少 FTA 费率中的种族差异。未来的研究应该尝试包括对程序正义的看法和其他社会经济地位的衡量标准。目前的研究受到预期和尝试治疗的微小差异以及缺乏关于程序正义和社会经济地位认知的数据的限制。