This study develops a methodology for examining the impact of court or
ders on local budgets and applies it to one of the most important area
s of judicial involvement-local jails. During the 1980s an increasing
number of local jails came under court order due to overcrowded facili
ties. In many counties this has been matched by equally rapid growth i
n jail capacity and expenditures. Based on simple comparisons of these
trends and case studies of individual counties, previous research on
court intervention has concluded that the courts have forced reluctant
local governments to increase expenditures on corrections. However, p
ast research on judicial intervention may be misleading because of ina
dequate controls for other factors that may affect both jail capacity
and spending. We examine the determinants of jail spending for a natio
nal sample of jails in the mid-1980s. Our results indicate that court
orders influence capacity expansion (their impact on current expenditu
res is less clear); however, other jail and demand factors may have a
stronger effect. Contrary to conventional wisdom, our findings suggest
that many jurisdictions, given adequate fiscal resources, budget for
jail expansion when they need it-not when forced by the courts to act.