Can transportation subsidies reduce failures to appear in criminal court? Evidence from a pilot randomized controlled trial
通过一项与公设辩护人和交通部门合作的随机对照试验，研究了交通补贴对减少刑事被告缺席法庭听证的影响，发现单独提供交通补贴效果有限。
The failure to appear (FTA) for a scheduled court hearing can have serious consequences for a criminal defendant. Many have speculated that transportation is a material barrier to court appearance. We provide evidence from the first randomized controlled trial of transportation subsidies to reduce FTAs, conducted jointly with public defenders and the transportation authority in Seattle, Washington. The most intensive intervention was a transit card providing 2–3 months of free public transportation. While the experiment is underpowered due to COVID-19 disruptions, our pilot results allow us to bound the treatment effect and derive estimates of cost effectiveness under alternative assumptions. Our results suggest that transportation subsidies alone do not have large benefits for this aspect of criminal justice.