Abolish the Cash Bail System
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Abolish the Cash Bail System
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Re: Abolish the Cash Bail System
#2Absolutely. It’s one of the most cruel and predatory systems that I can imagine — regardless of the severity of your crime, your ability to go home and see your family is determined by your financial status? Christ. Give me a break.
It’s also one of those policies that I literally can’t force myself to imagine a “pro” argument for.
> Today, three out of five people in U.S. jails have not been convicted of a crime. This amounts to nearly half a million people sitting in jail each day, despite being presumed innocent under the law. The vast majority of these individuals are awaiting trial but cannot afford the bail amount set for pretrial release.
That is fucking crazy. That sounds like a Blade-Runner-esque dystopia. And it’s our reality.
Re: Abolish the Cash Bail System
#3Absolutely. It’s one of the most cruel and predatory systems that I can imagine — regardless of the severity of your crime, your ability to go home and see your family is determined by your financial status? Christ. Give me a break. It’s also one of those policies that I literally can’t force myself to imagine a “pro” argument for. > Today, three out of five people in U.S. jails have not been convicted of a crime. Th…
One of the only ‘pro’ arguments that can be made in a sensible manner is to discuss the amount of people not incarcerated who do not appear for court. It is not a great argument, but it is a factor to be considered.
In theory, bail, via a bondsman, is an amount of money that will Ensure that the bail-bondsman will go track down the defendant in the event they do not appear for court as required.
That said, I don’t think the argument is persuasive enough to result in the system in place in most US jurisdictions.
Re: Abolish the Cash Bail System
#4Absolutely. It’s one of the most cruel and predatory systems that I can imagine — regardless of the severity of your crime, your ability to go home and see your family is determined by your financial status? Christ. Give me a break. It’s also one of those policies that I literally can’t force myself to imagine a “pro” argument for. > Today, three out of five people in U.S. jails have not been convicted of a crime. Th…
One of the only ‘pro’ arguments that can be made in a sensible manner is to discuss the amount of people not incarcerated who do not appear for court. It is not a great argument, but it is a factor to be considered. In theory, bail, via a bondsman, is an amount of money that will Ensure that the bail-bondsman will go track down the defendant in the event they do not appear for court as required. That said, I don’t th…
What?
It looks like your proposing someone pay someone else to do a particular role.
What does that have to do with cash bail?
I'm confused.
Re: Abolish the Cash Bail System
#5Absolutely. It’s one of the most cruel and predatory systems that I can imagine — regardless of the severity of your crime, your ability to go home and see your family is determined by your financial status? Christ. Give me a break. It’s also one of those policies that I literally can’t force myself to imagine a “pro” argument for. > Today, three out of five people in U.S. jails have not been convicted of a crime. Th…
> That is fucking crazy. That sounds like a Blade-Runner-esque dystopia. And it’s our reality.
From everything I read, it's rather scary to be poor in America, especially if you have to deal with the judicial or medical system.
Re: Abolish the Cash Bail System
#6What is the alternative? Something worse?
It’s on the ballot in California but it’s probably not what you want. (https://www.theleaguesf.org/#Prop25)
Re: Abolish the Cash Bail System
#7Absolutely. It’s one of the most cruel and predatory systems that I can imagine — regardless of the severity of your crime, your ability to go home and see your family is determined by your financial status? Christ. Give me a break. It’s also one of those policies that I literally can’t force myself to imagine a “pro” argument for. > Today, three out of five people in U.S. jails have not been convicted of a crime. Th…
> I literally can’t force myself to imagine a “pro” argument for.
There's a pretty good movie called Midnight Run that would need a new premise without cash bail. Other than that, yeah, no argument.
Re: Abolish the Cash Bail System
#8Absolutely. It’s one of the most cruel and predatory systems that I can imagine — regardless of the severity of your crime, your ability to go home and see your family is determined by your financial status? Christ. Give me a break. It’s also one of those policies that I literally can’t force myself to imagine a “pro” argument for. > Today, three out of five people in U.S. jails have not been convicted of a crime. Th…
The conviction rate is very high, upwards of 85% in some states. So it's not like large swaths of completely innocent people are being held in jails. I'm okay with pre-trial incarceration as long as everyone gets treated equally.
Since they aren't, I think non-cash bail is a good idea, with strict requirements to check in with an officer, etc. If they don't meet their appointments or break the terms of their bail, I'm also okay to see them incarcerated pre-trial.
However, there needs to be some provision to make sure that they don't stay in jail longer than what their offense would have garnered. If someone is in jail pre-trial for half the median time an average punishment if they were found guilty, then the charges should be immediately dropped. This should give prosecutors more incentive to get their acts together and have a trial in a reasonable amount of time.
Re: Abolish the Cash Bail System
#9What is the alternative? Something worse? It’s on the ballot in California but it’s probably not what you want. ( https://www.theleaguesf.org/#Prop25 )
Here in Australia bail is determined based on the severity of the charges and the likelihood of you being guilty and / or a flight risk.
Your wider point stands though: there's little reason to believe a replacement system instituted by the US Government would be better than the current one.
Re: Abolish the Cash Bail System
#10No. First figure out how to keep dangerous criminals off the street pre-trial. Then let’s talk. Cash bail is regressive and often unjust, I’m not willing to correct this injustice without a viable alternative to simply allowing dangerous people back onto the street hoping that they show up to trial and that they do not destroy while out.
I believe our system has flaws that need correcting, but I do not advocate destroying the system to fix them.