LOS ANGELES (AP) – In courtrooms across the country every day, a price tag is put on the freedom of the accused and for many it’s too expensive.
With more than 60 percent of jail inmates nationwide awaiting trial and many unable to afford bail, reforms are underway that rely less on the crime charged and a judge’s hunch and more on data to predict who can safely be released to later return to court and which dangerous defendants should remain locked up.
“It doesn’t say this person’s going to do this,” said Tara Boh Klute, general manager of the Administrative Office of the Kentucky Courts. “If we could do that it would be amazing. But you can’t do that with people.”
New Jersey voted to overhaul its bail system this year to prevent nonviolent suspects from languishing behind bars, a move counties across the country have been slowly adopting over the past decade. Others, such as Orange County, California, are considering similar measures to promote fairness, cut jail costs and protect the public.
The bail industry is among the chief critics, saying the longtime system of putting up money or an insurance-backed bail bond is better at getting people to show up in court and it saves the public costs of monitoring defendants or hunting down bail jumpers.