Collaborator: Laura Kurgan, Professor of Architecture at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation
Cities of Bail is a collaboration between researchers at Columbia Law School and the Columbia Center for Spatial Research. The project seeks to document and map the prevalence of mortgages and similar liens used to secure the release of criminal defendants pending trial, i.e., bail bonds secured with real property collateral. The project uses lien data from 2000 to 2020 to study the effects of bail liens on urban counties in five jurisdictions: Albuquerque, NM; Tucson, AZ; Pittsburgh, PA; Newark, NJ; and Jersey City, NJ. The project has received funding from CPE’s Firms and Antitrust Lab, as it seeks to measure the effects of concentration and competition among bail agents in the target jurisdictions.
