- "Bail practices that incarcerate indigent individuals before trial solely because of their inability to pay for their release violate the Fourteenth Amendment," the Justice Department said in a friend of court brief, citing the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection.
. . .
Justice Department's civil rights lawyers said in their brief that courts must consider a person's indigence and look at other ways of guaranteeing an appearance in court.
"Fixed bail schedules that allow for the pretrial release of only those who can play, without accounting for the ability to pay," the government said, "unlawfully discriminate based on indigence."
I have long thought that the practice of bail is completely archaic. Either you are too dangerous or too much of a flight risk to be released, or you are not. The amount of money you possess doesn't have anything to do with those things. Bail should be applied around common sense. That said, good luck.look at other ways of guaranteeing an appearance in court.
Take this reply with a grain of salt, because I'm no expert on this subject. I'm parroting most of what I've heard from others. Own recognizance is a thing as well as Pre-trial programs. One of the biggest criticisms I hear about bail in general when it comes to people of poverty is that it's used in coercing plea bargains. If you can't make bail and want to plead innocent, you could sit in jail for weeks until your trial. During this time you could lose your job, damage relationships, and God only knows what else. It's scary so it can be a huge factor. How the whole system actually works, I don't know. I'm not a lawyer and I'd argue that I go out of my way to ensure I don't break any laws myself, so I don't have any personal experience with the system. That said, I'd very much argue that a lot of people that find themselves in trouble with the law are good hearted people that had lapses in judgement or made honest mistakes. Annecdotally speaking, I've heard of cities and counties having amnesty programs where people can come to the courts to see if they have any bench warrants or warrants for misdemeanors, which if they do they can work out a plan for repaying the courts. I've heard that they're often succesful because a lot of people don't want to live life in fear of being stuck under a warrant. Like paying off debts, it takes a huge load of stress off them.