PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Heather M. Harris TI - The Impact of Remote Hearing Policies on Racial Equity in Criminal Case Outcomes During the Pandemic AID - 10.7758/RSF.2023.9.3.11 DP - 2023 May 01 TA - RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences PG - 252--279 VI - 9 IP - 3 4099 - http://www.rsfjournal.org/content/9/3/252.short 4100 - http://www.rsfjournal.org/content/9/3/252.full AB - The criminal justice system confronted unprecedented challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, court systems nationwide quickly instituted policies to enable criminal cases to proceed while protecting public health. The shift toward criminal hearings by videoconference or teleconference has persisted. All fifty states now conduct criminal hearings remotely. Yet evidence about how remote proceedings affect case outcomes remains sparse. Using data for all arrests and criminal case dispositions that occurred in California between 2018 and mid-2021, I characterize the impact the pandemic had on arrest and case resolution rates, estimate the impact of adopting policies to permit remote hearings on conviction and sentencing outcomes, and determine which factors contributed to racial differences in outcomes. Remote hearing policies contributed to racial inequalities in outcomes, which predated the pandemic and persisted amid it.