Remand Remand Ted Egan Category="Criminal law"Category="Imprisonment and detention"Category="Legal terms"[image] Remand is a legal term which has two related but distinct usages. Its etymology is from the Latin re- and mandare, literally "to order." It evolved in Late Latin to remandare, or "to send back word." It appears in Middle French as remander and in Middle English as remaunden, both with essentially the same meaning, "to send back."

Action by a court of appeal

The first common legal usage describes an action by an appellate court in which it remands, or sends back, a case to the Trial court or lower appellate court for action. For example, if the trial judge committed a procedural error, failed to admit evidence or witnesses which the appellate court ruled should have been admitted, or ruled improperly on a litigant's motion, the appellate court may send the case back to the Lower court for retrial or other action.

A case is said to be "remanded" when the Superior court returns or sends back the case to the lower court. Also, a court may be said to retry the case "on remand."

The remand has options. It may be a full remand, essentially ordering an entire new Trial; it may be "with instructions" specifying, for example, that the lower court must consider certain alternatives or evidence not entertained at trial; or it may be a partial remand as when an appellate court affirms a Conviction while directing the lower court to revisit the sentencing phase.

Action at arrest or arraignment

The second usage relates to the imprisonment of criminal suspects awaiting trial or sentencing. A Prisoner who is denied, refused or unable to meet the conditions of Bail, or who is unable to post bail, may be held in a prison on remand.

Reasons for being held in custody on remand vary depending on the local legal system, but may include

In most countries, remand prisoners are considered innocent until proven guilty by a Court and may be granted greater privileges than sentenced prisoners, such as

Remand prisoners are usually detained separately from sentenced prisoners, however, due to prison overcrowding they are sometimes held in a shared accommodation with sentenced prisoners.

Remand can cause hardship and a punishment for a suspect, even though not yet convicted of any crimes or sentenced.

Criticism

In the United States and Canada, more than half of persons currently being incarcerated are remand prisoners, generally those awaiting trial. Most face modest demands for Bail that they simply don't have the resources to raise. The burden falls heavier on poor defendants, and as a result disproportionately on groups like African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans. In many cases, defendants face a lesser criminal penalty for a Conviction than they actually spend awaiting their trial date. In the United States, the most common sentence handed out for a guilty Verdict is now "Time served". In Canada, the practice of crediting the defendant with two days against sentence for every one day spent in pre-trial custody has arisen. However, in both cases, this practice tends to deny the prisoner the opportunity for parole (which is often available to prisoners who have served at least one-third of their custodial sentence), though Statutory Release is still granted, under the law, after a prisoner has served two-thirds of their sentence. The release is nearly always to a half-way house of some kind, to facilitate the reintegration of the offender back into society.

In addition, remand facilities are often run at the municipal level. They tend to be much older facilities than penitentiaries or reformatories, and many date back to the 19th century. Many are overcrowded and are subject to a high degree of turnover. Prisons like New York City's Rikers Island and Toronto's Don Jail have become as notorious as high security prisons for violence. In Canada, the rule is now that one day spent in remand in "The Don" is counted as three days against any eventual sentence that may be imposed.

Additionally, remand prisons often find themselves home to the mentally ill, as mental health facilities are closed.

See also