251–260 of 288 posts
Wow, it's interesting to see this posted here since I was literally just reading about the fact that a lot of American weapons manufacturer uses prison laborers who get paid as little as $0.23 per hour! https://www.michaelwest.com.au/us-prison-labour-foreign-weap... Heck, you can even easily buy these forced laborers online from https://www.unicor.gov/Index.aspx I guess this cash bail system is created to fuel modern…
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No. You'd have to go to a 3rd party that is licensed by the state. You can usually find the businesses around courthouses or jails. They are often open 24 hours a day and fairly brightly lit.
Ah. There were a half-dozen of those on the way to the jail. I seem to recall my colleague had a choice of posting $300 with a commercial bond agent who would then post the $2500 with the court or anyone could post the whole $2500 in cash at the jail directly. (Was in Florida in Feb 1997.)
I'm to the point I think it is all a scam, and I'm ashamed we've let it get to this point.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_California_Proposition_25
Please reply with details if your country, state, home town as a similar reform effort.
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The article is quite clear in discussing the problem and solutions. When I don't understand a post about, let's say Rust, I acknowledge the gap in my knowledge instead of asking the software engineering community to dumb stuff down.
The article conspicuously does not mention practice in other countries. Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, and Scotland all have legal systems and cultures closely related to that of the US, and could potentially be the somewhere which has done a better job of handling the accused pre-trial.
I do have specific hard on for authors and journalists advocating reforms. For the love of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (god), point your audience to local orgs.
I've been to so many seminars, book tour events, etc. Every one present is already on board. They showed up because they want to do something, want to be around other people who also care.
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But it is easy to get thrown in jail. This is especially true if your skin isn't white enough: How many stories do you hear of folks being in jail for having the description, "Tall black male?". You act like everyone can avoid all things: Have you never met anyone put in jail for not paying child support when they don't have a job... in part, because they were put in jail for not paying child support? Or... you can l…
>But it is easy to get thrown in jail. This is especially true if your skin isn't white enough: How many stories do you hear of folks being in jail for having the description, "Tall black male?". I'm sorry to break your narrative, but this is NOT true in my experience at all. 99.999999% of the time, if you end up in jail, you knowingly engaged in questionable activity or associated yourself with criminal deviants. Do…
Maybe you just don't have much experience, or don't realize the vague descriptions police will use to bring folks in. Systematic racism makes this more likely if you aren't white. Systematic racism is a big issue.
You can be arrested for being homeless or stealing food if you are starving (not everywhere has available shelters nor food pantries to go to, nor do shelters provide safe places for a family). I don't think this is being deviant. They'll sure charge you bail, though. And again, sometimes it is just a mistake. Live in a legal state and forget to take those joints out of the care before going to an illegal state? Well, now you have a drug charge. You can't teach nor be a pharmacist now.
People get arrested for "drugs" that aren't all the time (leaves, candy, etc), but I'm guessing you haven't spent much time around the sort of person that gets stopped for this sort of thing (generally, just young and alternative-looking with a crappier-than-average car). Some of them go to jail waiting on the stuff to be tested.
Your experience isn't broad enough. Just because you haven't seen these things in your corner of the world doesn't mean it is false.
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> Keep in mind, it isn't easy to suddenly and accidentally get thrown in jail. Have you not paid attention to any protest in the US whatsoever in the past 10-15 years? It's VERY easy to get thrown in jail, even when judges have ruled mere months before that it's illegal for police to keep arresting protesters.
A ruling that you can’t be arrested for protesting does not mean you can’t be arrested while protesting. Batter a cop? You’re probably going for a ride even if you were at a protest, which seems fairly reasonable.
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If they're not flight risks and are not able to permanently disappear from the justice system's reach, then they're not the reason the bail system exists.
The main problem isn’t flight or cinemaesque disappearing, it’s simply avoiding arrest and being out in the community reoffending. If you’re busted for dealing meth and get released pending trial and then don’t show you’re probably just out there selling meth again, crashing at a buddy’s place and avoiding getting pulled over.
In any case, drug dealers are more likely to have the cash to pay their bail and get back out on the street than the regular working poor.
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OK, but you can't really argue your way around: > This amounts to nearly half a million people sitting in jail each day, despite being presumed innocent under the law
> This amounts to nearly half a million people sitting in jail each day, despite being presumed innocent under the law Ok, but it's not the same half million on any given day. A huge number of those people got picked up the night before and will be out (on bail or otherwise) by the end of the business day. Incarcerating people is expensive. Even if getting them out doesn't involve the state getting an interest free l…
And how does it compare with other countries? Can anyone provide statistics and plausible explanations?
As a non-US person watching certain American series on Netflix just blows my mind. For example, my wife is currently watching "Good Girls" in which we see the following things that really make me never want to live in the US (I wonder if this really happens though, can someone confirm?): - You can pay to stay out of jail so only poor people stay in jail after a crime, before the trial (guess OP proves this is real).…
As a US person it amazes me the level to which many in the US will defend normative practices simply because they are. It amazes me further their willingness to provide and accept post hoc justifications for systems that were explicitly created with racist intent.
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So just to summarize down, you are willing to sacrifice the freedom of an unknown other so that you feel you are safer?
Yes I will vote to keep the system as is because I believe it works generally. I’m willing to vote for progress but only without system breaking regression, sorry about that