Alison Siegler Writes About the Bail Reform Act

Guest posts on big Seventh Circuit Wilks decision on Bail Reform Act’s "presumption of detention"

Alison Siegler
January 19, 2022 Sentencing Law and Policy

I hope readers recall the series of guest posts from a few years ago authored by Alison Siegler, Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the University of Chicago Law School's Federal Criminal Justice Clinic, concerning the extraordinary litigation her clinic has done in response to so-called "stash house stings." Not too long ago, Alison wrote to me to highlight a big new Seventh Circuit ruling on the Bail Reform Act that related to another focus of her work. I suggested that she do another guest post series on the ruling because this was a legal space I know little about. She has prepared two long posts on the topic, and here is the first:

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**Guest Blog Posts Re Wilks and the Presumption of Detention by Alison Siegler**

PART I

This is the first of two guest posts discussing a groundbreaking opinion that addresses the Bail Reform Act’s “presumption of detention.”

The BRA’s presumption of detention applies to “nearly half of all federal criminal cases and to 93 percent of all drug cases.” Alison Siegler & Erica Zunkel, Rethinking Federal Bail Advocacy to Change the Culture of Detention, THE CHAMPION 46, 50 (July 2020); 18 U.S.C. § 3142(e)(2)–(3). The most common types of cases in which the presumption applies are drug cases, § 924(c) gun cases, and minor victim cases. A study from the Administrative Office of the United States Courts finds that the “presumption of detention . . . is driving high federal detention rates,” and that in practice, the presumption “has become an almost de facto detention order.” Amaryllis Austin, The Presumption for Detention Statute’s Relationship to Release Rates, 81 FED. PROBATION 52, 56, 61 (2017). The same study found that “the presumption increases the detention rate without advancing community safety. Rather than jailing only the worst of the worst, the presumption over-incarcerates the lowest-risk offenders in the system.” Siegler & Zunkel, supra, at 50 (citing Austin, supra, at 57). “Now, with the presumption as a driving force, federal pretrial detention rates have skyrocketed, with three in four people jailed before trial — a 75 percent detention rate that falls disproportionately on people of color. This is mass incarceration in action.” Alison Siegler & Kate Harris, How Did the Worst of the Worst Become 3 Out of 4?, N.Y. TIMES (Feb. 24, 2021). Courts often assume that the presumption ties their hands, and defense attorneys sometimes waive the right to seek release in presumption cases because challenging pretrial detention feels futile.