Part 3: The Six Most Significant Bail Studies - Dr. Robert Morris, Dallas County Pretrial Release Study (2013, 2014, 2017)

Every pretrial failure to appear has a cost of over $1,700 to Dallas County. By ensuring defendants show up for court, the surety bail profession saved Dallas County close to $10 million.

The next research study in AIA Surety's The Six Most Significant Bail Studies series is the Dallas County, Texas Pretrial Release Study by Dr. Robert Morris. This study stands as one of the most rigorous analyses in the national bail reform and pretrial release conversation. Researchers examined nearly all pretrial releases in Dallas County during 2008—approximately 22,000 to 29,000 cases—using advanced propensity score matching to create statistically identical groups of defendants across four release types: commercial surety bonds, cash bonds, attorney bonds, and pretrial services releases. The results were unambiguous: defendants released on financially secured commercial surety bonds had significantly lower failure-to-appear (FTA) rates and bond forfeiture rates than those released through any other mechanism. For felony cases, defendants not released on surety bonds were 39% to 56% more likely to fail to appear in court. These differences held across offense categories and demonstrated that surety bonds consistently outperformed unsecured and cashless alternatives in ensuring court appearances.

This study is particularly significant because it directly challenges the assumption that removing financial conditions automatically improves pretrial release outcomes. By leveraging the private-sector incentives of surety bonds—where bondsmen and sureties are financially liable for non-appearance—the commercial model creates powerful motivation for active supervision, reminders, and fugitive recovery that government-run pretrial services often cannot match at the same cost. The research also quantified taxpayer savings, noting that each FTA costs the system roughly $1,700 in warrants, rearrests, and court delays. In an era when many jurisdictions are shifting toward cashless bail policies, the Dallas County findings provide compelling, large-scale evidence that financially secured surety bonds remain one of the most effective and cost-efficient tools for balancing defendant rights, court accountability, and public safety.

An excerpt from AIA Surety's article is below as well as a link to the original article.

Part 3: The Six Most Significant Bail Studies
Dr. Robert Morris (2013/2014) / Clipper, Morris & Russell-Kaplan (2017) – Dallas County, Texas Pretrial Release Study

In Part 3 of our series, The Six Most Significant Bail Studies, we look at a powerful study done in Dallas County, Texas, by Dr. Robert Morris. What is so unique about Dr. Morris’ study is that it was the first study of its kind to put a cost on a failure to appear. Ultimately, what Dr. Morris was able to prove in his study is that it provides strong evidence that financially secured surety bonds are among the most effective and cost-efficient tools for ensuring court appearances. READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE>>>