Congratulations to lab member Rebecca Tublitz who successfully defended her dissertation on bail reform in Maryland this spring, 2025, and will be graduating in June.
Across three studies, Rebecca examines Maryland’s statewide bail reform to evaluate its effects on judicial decision-making and public safety, and to investigate how local court contexts shape pretrial outcomes. In the 1st study, she employs a regression discontinuity analysis to evaluate how bail reform affects judicial decision-making at the pretrial stage. In the 2nd study, she investigates the impact of bail reform on crime using a synthetic control group approach. In the final study, using multilevel modeling techniques, she analyzes how pretrial decision-making varies across court jurisdictions and explores how the social contexts of courts shape responses to new law.
Dr. Tublitz will continue conducting policy-related research at the Institute for State and Local Governance at the City University of New York.