THE IMPACT OF COURTS ON THE DECISION TO EXPAND JAIL CAPACITY

Over the past 20 years, an extensive literature has focused on the rol e of courts in shaping public policy and management. Yet despite the c ontinuing interest in the topic, very little ''hard'' evidence exists on the actual impact of court interventions in public agencies. The ob jective of this study is to estimate the impact of court orders and ma n dates on public programs in one of the most important areas of judic ial intervention, local jails. The authors' findings for a national sa mple of jails in 1983 and 1988 confirm that court orders do influence the decision to expand the capacity of local jails. However; other jai l-related factors-the level of overcrowding and jail age-actually have stronger impacts on the probability that a jurisdiction will decide i o expand capacity than does the presence of a court order These result s imply a reconsideration of the conventional wisdom that court orders force reluctant elected officials to vote for unpopular capital proje cts, such as jails. The authors' findings indicate that many jurisdict ions, given adequate fiscal resources, are likely to plan for capital expansion when they need if-not when forced by the courts to act.