Reducing failures to appear (FTA) in court is a top priority for criminal justice practitioners and advocates. However, existing work on reducing FTAs through text message reminders focuses on large urban jurisdictions and defendants who are housed. Using a field study in Shasta County, California, we evaluate whether text message outreach can increase court appearances for housed and unhoused populations. We find housed defendants randomly assigned to the treatment group were 10% less likely to miss their next scheduled court date than defendants in the control group. We find no statistical difference in the FTA rate of unhoused individuals assigned to treatment or control groups, and cannot rule out large positive or negative effects. We find that improving the quality of contact information in court records could lead to large reductions in FTAs. Partnering with local social service providers may not, but more research is needed.

中文翻译：

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短信可以减少农村和弱势群体的监禁吗？

减少不出庭 (FTA) 是刑事司法从业者和倡导者的首要任务。然而，现有通过短信提醒减少自由贸易协定的工作主要集中在大城市管辖区和被安置的被告。通过在加利福尼亚州沙斯塔县进行的实地研究，我们评估了短信外展是否可以增加有住房和无住房人口的出庭率。我们发现，随机分配到治疗组的被安置被告错过下一次预定开庭日期的可能性比对照组的被告低 10%。我们发现分配到治疗组或对照组的无家可归者的 FTA 率没有统计差异，并且不能排除巨大的积极或消极影响。我们发现，提高法庭记录中联系信息的质量可能会导致自由贸易协定的大幅减少。与当地社会服务提供商合作可能不会，但需要更多的研究。