Santa Clara Public Defender Pre-Arraignment Representation & Review Team (PARR) 2.0 Study

Last registered on April 26, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Santa Clara Public Defender Pre-Arraignment Representation & Review Team (PARR) 2.0 Study
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0013414
Initial registration date
April 18, 2024

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
April 26, 2024, 10:27 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

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Primary Investigator

Name
Johanna Lacoe
Affiliation
University of California, Berkeley
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Steven Raphael
PI Affiliation
University of California, Berkeley
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-05-01
End date
2027-12-31
Keywords
Crime, Violence, & Conflict
Additional Keywords
pretrial, public defense, recidivism
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Following a successful pilot study (AEARCTR-0006390), the California Policy Lab will evaluate the impact of the Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office’s Pre-Arraignment Representation & Review Team (PARR) during the expansion and scale-up of the program on pre-trial detention, release at arraignment, and case outcomes, and longer term recidivism outcomes. The study will use a random process to assign legal staff to clients who are booked on felony charges and not released within 24 hours of booking. Specifically, using a pre-determined schedule, legal staff will provide PARR services to clients booked 6 days per week, rotating the 7th day across days of the week over the study period.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Lacoe, Johanna and Steven Raphael. 2024. "Santa Clara Public Defender Pre-Arraignment Representation & Review Team (PARR) 2.0 Study ." AEA RCT Registry. April 26. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13414-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The Santa Clara Public Defender's Office created a Pre-Arraignment Representation & Review Team (PARR) that provides early public representation to individuals booked into jail in Santa Clara County. The PARR unit does not have sufficient resources to serve all individuals in custody pre-arraignment on felony charges or domestic violence charges in Santa Clara County. They therefore operate on 6 days per week, rotating the 7th day each week.
Intervention Start Date
2024-05-01
Intervention End Date
2024-10-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Number of days detained pre-disposition
Release from detention
Charges filed (whether any charges are filed, number of charges filed, severity)
Case dispositions (dismissals, plea bargains)
Recidivism (any new arrest in the 12 months following disposition, any new arrest leading to conviction in the 12 months following disposition, and potentially longer follow up periods if possible)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Conviction
Sentence length when sentenced
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The PARR unit does not have sufficient resources to serve all individuals in custody pre-arraignment in Santa Clara County. They therefore operate 6 days per week, rotating the 7th day across days of the week each week. Eligible individuals booked on a non-treatment day will make up the control group – if eligible for public defender services, their first interaction with the office is at arraignment.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
The rotating schedule was predetermined prior to implementation by the study team.
Randomization Unit
Individuals are assigned treatment based on date of jail booking
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
No clusters
Sample size: planned number of observations
Between 544-1,902 depending on the length of the treatment window.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Based on PARR’s weekly rotating schedule, we estimate services will be offered to 86% of individuals who will be in custody post booking and pre-arraignment (n= ~317 per month) and that services were provided to at least 43% of the individuals (n~136) to whom they were offered. Under these assumptions, for a four month treatment window, the total sample would be 544, 6 month treatment window n= 816, and a 9 month treatment window n=1,224. If the PARR staff are able to serve all eligible clients per month, the total sample would be 1,268 for the four month window, and n=1,902 for the six month window.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
We estimate power calculations for several assumptions. First, given the current PARR service level from February 2024, and a four month treatment window, we would expect a total sample of 544. Based on this sample size, we expect an intent-to-treat (ITT) minimum detectable effect (MDE) on the main outcomes of interest of 14-15 percentage points (95% confidence, 80% power). Release from detention: population mean 0.72, MDE 0.14; Days to Release: population mean 28.6, MDE 8.9; Dismissal: population mean 0.32, MDE 0.14, Conviction: population mean 0.36, MDE 0.15. Expanding the treatment window to 6 months lowers the MDEs to between 11 and 12 percentage points (7.2 days to release), and to 9 months lowers the MDEs to between 9 and 10 percentage points (5.6 days to release). If the PARR program is able to serve a larger share of eligible clients per month (e.g. 317 clients), the MDEs for the 4 month timeline closely mirror those for the 9 month timeline cited above. MDEs for a six month treatment window range from 7 to 8 percentage points (4.7 days to release). All of these MDEs are well below the impact estimates generated from the pilot study.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Committee for Protection of Human Subjects (CPHS)
IRB Approval Date
Details not available
IRB Approval Number
2024-01-17056
Analysis Plan