The encroachment of money into the process of bail has since been unrelenting...This coupling of money and bail is troubling for several reasons
A shorthand term used primarily for describing bail or a bail bond using secured financial conditions. The two central issues concerning money bail are: (1) unnecessary incarceration of defendants who cannot afford to pay; and (2) the use of secured financial conditions to protect public safety, a notion with no empirical support and no legal basis in the more enlightened states’ statutes
A legal term of art used to describe bail that is unconstitutional pursuant to the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution (or similar state provisions). The Eighth Amendment states that, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” The Excessive Bail Clause derives from reforms made by the English Parliament in the 1600s to curb the abuse of judges setting impossibly high money bail to thwart the purpose of bail to afford a process of pretrial release
see Money Bail Bond Schedule
Bail bonds are sometimes called “appearance bonds,” as all bail bonds are minimally appearance bonds, but that term does not fully reflect the purpose of bail, which is to normally afford release while reasonably assuring court appearance and public safety
Also known as a commercial or compensated surety, a bail bondsman is one who guarantees a defendant’s appearance for court by prom ising to pay a financial condition of bond if the defendant does not appear for court. Bail bondsmen are typically licensed by the state and have an appointment from an insurance company to act as such. For their services, bail bondsmen charge defendants a non-refundable fee, and usually require the defendant (or his or her friends or family) to collateralize the full amount of the financial condition with cash or property
A written listing of amounts of money to be used in bail setting based on the offense charged, regardless of the characteristics of any individual defendant. While they are often created with good intentions, many argue that bail schedules are the antithesis of individualized bail determinations, and thus clearly violate principles articulated by the Supreme Court in Stack v
Every day, all across America, women are arrested and detained unnecessarily for no reason other than their inability to purchase their release using money bail
When granted by federal or state law, it is the right to release from jail or other government custody through the bail process
The “traditional” money or financial bail system, which includes any system of the administration of bail that is over-reliant on money. Some of its hallmarks include monetary bail bond schedules, overuse of secured bonds, a reliance on commercial sureties (for- profit bail bondsmen), financial conditions set to protect the public from future criminal conduct, and financial conditions set without consideration of the defendant’s ability to pay, or without consideration of non-financial conditions that would likely reduce risk
The notion underlying a risk-based administration of bail that each defendant poses his or her own risk, which can be assessed using professional standards and research. It presupposes that the fixing of bail in a blanket fashion not taking into consideration those individual risk characteristics is flawed and possibly illegal
This report discusses the issues money bail and its negative impact on the pretrial release process. Topics covered in this report include a history of money bail, its use in the system, its impact on the judicial system, and effective alternatives and recommendations to money bail
Bail Fail - JPI 2012.pdf
This article employs a cost-benefit analysis of pretrial detention as a framework for designing a better bail system. The author, Crystal Yang, argues that "jurisdictions develop “net benefit” assessment instruments by predicting both risk and harm for each defendant in order to move closer toward a bail system that maximizes social welfare."
Toward an Optimal Bail System - Yang .pdf
PJI CEO Cherise Fanno Burdeen sat down with Robin Steinberg, founder of The Bail Project, ahead of July 11-12 PI-Con(tinued) in Denver. Robin and others from The Bail Project will be participating in many different parts of the convention, including Robin's moderation of a roundtable exclaiming "#endcashbail was only a hashtag!"
PI-Crumb The Bail Project.mp4
The National Bail Out collective, a formation of Black organizers and lawyers, is working with groups in over a dozen locations to bail out as many Black mothers and caregivers as possible so they can spend Mother’s Day with their families. Last year’s event saw more than 200 people bailed out, and more than $150,000 raised for supportive services such as emergency transportation and long-term housing. This year, in addition to working on direct bail out actions, the collective is also providing technical assistance and communications support to groups who want to join the movement to end money bail and make a difference in their communities
1 Comment - I'm a bail agent and have bonded many mothers for very little money, so to make money bail sound bad you may not really understand our jobs fully and what we do for people. Pretrial charges for monitoring which is not free and U.A's, with money bail it is probably much cheaper on defendants to pay a one time fee, plus the bill is not footed by tax payers dollars. Also bail agents work with the loved ones of Defendants as they cosign and take responsibility for helping us get them to comply with the courts
The first major reform of the federal bail system since the Judiciary Act of 1789, which established the federal judiciary. The 1966 Act contained the following provisions: (1) a presumption in favor of releasing non-capital defendants on their own recognizance; (2) conditional pretrial release with conditions imposed to reduce the risk of failure to appear; (3) restrictions on money bail bonds, which the court could impose only if non financial release options were not enough to assure a defendant’s appearance; (4) a deposit money bail bond option, allowing defendants to post a 10% deposit of the money bail bond amount with the court in lieu of the full monetary amount of a surety bond; and (5) review of bail bonds for defendants detained for 24 hours or more.* After passage of this Act, many states passed similar laws
The Act that amended the 1966 Bail Reform Act to include danger to the community, or public safety, as a consideration in the pretrial release and detention decision
WYPR's Fresh City focused this week on pretrial justice in Baltimore, including interviews with Judge Truman Morrison from Washington, D.C., Tara Blair from Kentucky, and Cherise Fanno Burdeen from the Pretrial Justice Institute.
This document provides a list of resources regarding race and bail in pretrial services
Race and Bail Bibliography - PJI.pdf
This document discusses the Baltimore bail system and for the profit bail bonding industry. It uses real life stories as examples of discrimination and the bail bond industry, how the bail bond industry undermines the judicial system, and the negative impact of pretrial detention on individuals, families, and taxpayers
Bailing on Baltimore - JPI 2012.pdf