Bail Reform
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Bail Reform
In setting bail or bond terms for accused persons, courts are likely to set the bail or bond amount so high that the accused person won’t be able to afford it or will struggle to pay. In prisons, there are very many people under pretrial detention. In some instances, they are more than those who have been convicted of various crimes. This is unfair. It punishes accused persons for being poor. The rich who can afford bail, no matter how high the amount is set, buy their freedom. Despite being a person accused of committing a crime, one is innocent until proven guilty. High bail amounts act as punishment for poor accused persons for failing to afford bail or bond, even though it has not been proved that they are guilty of any crime. This affects them in many ways. Some families with assets end up selling those assets so that they can afford bail or bond. When they sell those assets, they have the burden of replacing them so that they continue generating income. Accused persons lose their jobs when they are in prison because they cannot afford to post bail. Some of them are sole breadwinners in their families. It affects their families because they do not have anyone to provide for them. It is worse for those who are proved to be not guilty in the end since they now have to start looking for jobs. It may be difficult to get hired when people know that one is out of prison. Many employers do not care that it was pretrial detention and not serving a prison sentence. Some people lose their housing when they are released. Courts should set appropriate bail amounts for accused persons. This can be done by looking at the economic status of accused persons using parameters such as type of employment (Koepke & Robinson, 2018).
Reply to 1st Post
Indeed, the concept of pretrial bail is not fair to persons accused of misdemeanors. Such as being homeless or loitering. Homeless people usually have nowhere to go; that is why they live on the streets. They just ensure they have something to lie on and another one to cover themselves with and sleep outside. When they are detained due to failure to post bail, it does not make sense. If one cannot afford food or a home, they surely cannot afford to pay bail. They usually struggle to find food, and sometimes they are unlucky. They suffer on the streets. If nothing can be done to help ease their suffering, then the justice system should not be used to make them suffer more. Courts should set lower bail amounts for persons accused of small crimes. Their lives are disrupted when they are unable to afford to pay bail. The purpose of the justice system is not to disrupt lives but to correct offenders found guilty of crimes (Calaway & Kinsley, 2017).
Reply to 2nd Post
Bail is good since it helps to ensure that accused persons do not flee from the jurisdiction in which they are charged. That would be a leeway for many criminals to get away with their crimes. It is important to look at each case on its own when determining bail terms for accused persons. This is because circumstances are different for every person accused of a crime. Bail terms should be set according to crimes that people are accused of. Those charged with felonies should be given tougher bail terms since they pose more of a risk to the community than those accused of misdemeanors and other small crimes. For instance, people accused of terrorism-related offenses should not be given similar terms to those accused of minor offenses such as loitering or affray. This is because those accused of terrorism-related charges pose a larger threat to society than those charged with affray (Schlesinger, 1986).
References
Calaway, W. R., & Kinsley, J. M. (2017). Rethinking Bail Reform. University of Richmond Law Review, 795-829.
Koepke, J. L., & Robinson, D. G. (2018). Danger Ahead: Risk Assessment and the Future of Bail Reform. Washington Law Review, 1725-1808.
Schlesinger, S. R. (1986). Bail Reform: Protecting the Community and the Accused. Harvard Law Review, 504-543.
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