John Donohue

John Donohue is the C. Wendell and Edith M. Carlsmith Professor of Law at Stanford University. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University and J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Voting History
Pretrial detention
Reducing the number of people detained pretrial will lead to a net increase in crime in the medium- to long-term.
Vote | Confidence |
---|---|
Neutral/No Opinion | 5 |
Median Survey Vote | Median Survey Confidence |
---|---|
Disagree | 7 |
Ending the use of cash bail will meaningfully reduce the number of people detained pretrial.
Vote | Confidence |
---|---|
Agree | 8 |
Median Survey Vote | Median Survey Confidence |
---|---|
Agree | 7 |
Comments
Using risk assessment to inform detention decisions will meaningfully reduce the number of people detained pretrial.
Vote | Confidence |
---|---|
Agree | 8 |
Median Survey Vote | Median Survey Confidence |
---|---|
Neutral/No Opinion | 5 |
Comments
Pretrial detention incapacitates in the short run and ensures defendants show up for trial but I suspect it is not pursued in an effective way in that lots of low-risk individuals are locked up needlessly and the resources thereby wasted could be diverted to effective crime reduction strategies. I would need to know more about the costs and benefits of pretrial detention and the manner of inducing less detention to opine on whether a reduction will be benign or harmful.