ipl-logo

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Cash Based Bail System

666 Words3 Pages

The cash-based bail system has few perceived advantages and significant disadvantages. The cash-based bail system though overall is systematically flawed, keeping it from serving its intended purpose of public safety and ensuring defendant’s appearance in court (Pretrial Justice Institute, 2012). While some people may view it as a necessary system, it should be evaluated to determine if it is serving its intended purpose. I believe it is serving a much different purpose than it intends to. Rather than providing safety for the public and causing defendants to have a financial incentive to appear at court, the cash-based bail system has created a justice system that systematically incarcerates the poor. Despite what I believe the cash-based …show more content…

A major disadvantage of the cash-based bail process is that the rate of pretrial detainees in jail has increased. Existing laws have established that the least restrictive means necessary should be imposed on detainees when releasing them from incarceration while maintaining community safety and assuring their appearance in court. The least restrictive means, non-financial conditions, are not utilized nearly at the same rate as money bonds. Money bonds are the most restrictive conditions that could be imposed on a detainee. While laws have established that the least restrictive conditions should be imposed, a majority of detainees have money bonds imposed. Fifty-three percent of felony cases in 1990 had money bonds imposed, this figure increased to seventy percent by 2006. As the rate of using money bonds increased pretrial release decreased. Sixty-five percent of felony detainees were released pretrial in 1990, while only fifty-eight percent were released pretrial in 2006. As a consequence of increasingly imposing money bonds on detainees and therefore increasing the detained pretrial population, county spending on jails has risen drastically. County spending rose over five hundred percent between 1982 and 2006. This five hundred percent rise means that county jails went from spending twenty-one billion dollars to spending over one hundred billion dollars. Therefore, the reliance on the cash bail system, which increased the detained pretrial population, has created a significant financial burden on taxpayers (Pretrial Justice Institute,

Show More
Related

  • Essay On Commercial Bail Bond Agencies

    3621 Words  | 15 Pages

    Commercial bail bond agencies have been around in the United States since the late 1800s. With four states in the United States that have already banned commercial bail bond agencies, one wonders if commercial bail bond agencies are really needed, and if they are important when it comes to pretrial release. This paper will explore bail bond agencies history and how they became what they are today. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the ways that commercial bail bond agencies are important to pre-trial release, and explore the research and statistics that currently explain why commercial bail bond agencies are important.

    Read More

  • Bail Reform Case Study

    764 Words  | 4 Pages

    In criminal cases, Pretrial release is where a defendant is released from jail while the criminal case is pending. The release usually begins with a bond (criminal-law.com). Pretrial procedures tend to follow the general pattern of civil cases, but with imperative modifications. The functions of the pretrial release decision by attaining defendants for trial which maintains the integrity of the judicial process, the protections of witnesses and victims, as well as the community from interference, threats, or dangers (americanbar.org). The most crucial crimes are felonies which, the punishment is imprisonment for at least a year, usually in a federal or a state penitentiary.

    Read More

  • Bail Bonds In Jail

    738 Words  | 3 Pages

    Scott Stringer issued a report calling for total removal of the commercial Bail Bonds in the city, hoping it would eventually lead to the states and the nation. In Stringer’s report is said that the city spends $100 million a year to lock up people who are too poor to make bail. This was news to one of the biggest bail bond business owner in New York. She claimed that Bail Bond businesses are small functional and integral part of the criminal justice system for New York. $10,000 bond costs $860 in New York, the lowest premium in the nation.

    Read More

  • Private Prisons Executive Summary

    903 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the documentary film Private Prisons, provides insight on how two private prisons industries, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Geo Group, generate revenue through mass incarceration. It is no surprise that the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. The United States represents approximately 5% of the world’s population index and approximately 25% of the world’s prisoners due to expansion of the private prison industry complex (Private Prisons, 2013). The number of people incarcerated in private prions has grown exponentially over the past decades. To put into perspective, the number of individuals increased by 1600% between 1990 and 2005 (Private Prisons, 2003).

    Read More

  • Bail Bond System

    831 Words  | 4 Pages

    To put it in a simple way, bail is the refundable exchange of cash, bond, or property between the court and the arrestee in return of the freedom of the arrestee until the trial date. [1] Bail exists not for the courts to make money but to allow arrestees who are in jail awaiting trial for a non-capital crime an opportunity to go back to their communities while leaving a personal interest with the court. [2] The personal interest that the arrestee left with the court will ensure that the arrestee will come back to the court on the trial date and not flee. [2] In felonies and some misdemeanors allowing an offender the privilege to pay a bail and go free until trial is up to the discretion of the judge, if for some reason the judge suspects that

    Read More

  • Remarkable Court Decision And The Future Of Prisons In America, By Jonathan Simon

    1084 Words  | 5 Pages

    From healthcare to personal safety, inmates are suffering illnesses, abuse, excessive sentences, and maltreatment at an astronomical rate. There has been a vast debate on the issue. There are many arguments for lesser prison sentences and better prison conditions. Mass Incarceration on Trial, A Remarkable Court Decision and the Future of Prisons in America, written by Jonathan Simon, illustrates how our nation has become far removed from treating prisoners as human beings who deserving dignity and our nation has failed to properly address this grossly flawed prison system; particularly California. We as a society know very little about mass incarceration and the atrocities that happen behind the concrete walls of the numerous prisons in

    Read More

  • Jail Is Sinking Families

    304 Words  | 2 Pages

    The article “Jail Is Sinking Families into Poverty, and Women Pay the Most” discusses the situation of Carla Gonzales, who is a part of a study of 300 families who are dealing with the crippling debt associated with their loved ones’ criminal convictions and incarcerations, and her family after the incarceration of her brother. Many of these families, especially the women, go into extreme debt trying to pay for lawyer fees, court fees, costs of prison visitations, and basic necessities (commissary items and phone calls) for the individual incarcerated. This debt also affects inmates after they are released as they often rely on their families, who are themselves sometimes evicted or denied housing, to find work and housing. Alicia Walters,

    Read More

  • Are Prisons Obsolete By Angela Davis

    1097 Words  | 5 Pages

    Today in the United States, there is more than 7.1 million individuals under correctional supervision. For every 100,000 people, there is approximately 737 people incarcerated, nearly seven times higher than the world average incarceration rate of 166 per 100,000 people. This rapid explosion of prison populations over the past 25 years can largely be attributed to The War on Drugs and mandatory minimums which have primarily target the African-American community. Mandatory sentencing guides have led to many individuals being locked up for minor drug offences and non-violent crimes. As a result, prisons are overflowing with incarcerated individuals.

    Read More

  • Should Prisoners Have To Work For America

    1079 Words  | 5 Pages

    The money that is spent on prisons and the prisoners could benefit the citizens of America in another way. The amount of money that comes from taxes alone could help build houses for those in need, help pay off student loans or even give money back to the hard working Americans. “The total cost of Colorado’s prisons—to incarcerate an average daily population of 19,958—was therefore $606.2 million, of which 3.5 percent were costs outside the corrections budget” (Vera 1). This money goes to items such as televisions, health care, beds, luxury items, hot meals, coffee, and cigarettes. The list goes on although prisoners were put into jail because they are harmful to society.

    Read More

  • Essay On Mass Incarceration

    959 Words  | 4 Pages

    Our prison system is nothing more than a people mill, where more than hundreds of individuals go in for the crimes they commit, and they do not necessarily come out. Policymakers and the public see mass incarceration as a useful tool for a swift and stern justice system but mass incarceration, in fact, has a negative impact on crime and carries collateral consequences with it. Mass incarceration and

    Read More

  • Prison System Flawed Essay

    1079 Words  | 5 Pages

    As stated here “The more money a state spends on building and running prisons, the less there is for everything else, from roads and bridges to health care and public

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Rich Get Richer And The Poor Get Prison

    1586 Words  | 7 Pages

    The criminal justice system may be more corrupt than the people who fill our prisons. It is amazing to see the many ways that certain parts of society actually benefit from the current system we support. This book,The Rich Get Richer and The Poor Get Prison, by authors Jeffrey Reiman and Paul Leighton, has open my eyes to a very corrupt idealism. They are very precise in their supporting examples as well by walking the reader through each step and analogy.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Prison Reform

    852 Words  | 4 Pages

    Improve access to justice and case management during pre-trial detention. 5. Develop and implement constructive non-custodial

    Read More

  • Criminalizing Poverty In The Criminal Justice System

    830 Words  | 4 Pages

    Goal: Post about criminalizing poverty Total words in document: 830 Title: Criminalizing Poverty The way the criminal justice system in this country works does not create a level playing field for all offenders. The ability of the offender to pay greatly influences the amount of time spent in corrections, not only because of the policy of restitution, but also with the added Legal Financial Obligations (LFOs) placed upon the accused by the criminal justice system.

    Read More

  • Essay On The Pros And Cons Of Pre-Trail Release

    891 Words  | 4 Pages

    This paper is to help show how sometimes judges can be Bias or inherent in the amount of bail set and other restrictions for pre-trial release while showing the concept of bail what can be done to prevent arbitrary and potentially prejudiced decisions from being made in the courtroom when it comes to bail by the judge, Also discuss the pros and cons of private vs. public defense. Introduction This paper will show the pros and cons of pre-release and define pre-trail release and bond, arbitrary. bond types also look into the factors of bail amounts a judge looks at to determine how much the defendant’s bail is and a few ways to prevent arbitrary and potentially Prejudice decisions from being made in the court by judges.

    Read More

More about Advantages And Disadvantages Of Cash Based Bail System

Open Document