Automating Bureaucracy with Python: The Case of the Springfield Bail Fund

How can the Springfield Bail Fund automate and track its large volume of inquiries and manage the information received in an organized manner using Python and Excel?

C. Daniel Guetta  | Spring 2022
Operations
Print this page

Bail funds, organizations that collect money to post bail for community members who are eligible for cash bail to stay out of jail until the time of their trial, have grown throughout US history, buoyed by major civil rights events such as the Red Scares, Civil Rights movements, Vietnam War Protests, among others. Given the volume of potential community members who would benefit from bail fund assistance and the plethora of defendant information required to process the bail payments, such funds like the Springfield Bail Fund face a logistical and management challenge. In this case, students will learn about the US justice and bail systems and use Python to solve a bail fund’s caseload management difficulties.

Case ID: 220205
Supplemental Materials: Teaching Note , Bail Fund Supplement 1 - OAuth , Bail Fund Supplement - Gmail , Bail Fund Supplement 3 - PowerPoint

Buy select cases through The Case Centre,  Ivey Publishing and Harvard Business Publishing.

Contact us by e-mail at Columbia CaseWorks or 212-853-8585.