"Nationally, about 47 percent of felony defendants with bonds remain jailed before their cases are heard because they cannot make bail. At the D.C. jail on 19th Street SE, no one is locked up on a criminal charge because of an inability to pay.
“We’ve proven it can work without money, but the whole country continues as if in a trance to do what we know does not work,” said D.C. Superior Court Judge Truman Morrison. The new way of thinking he promotes tracks the federal system, which bars judges from setting financial barriers to keep someone locked up...
A push for pretrial justice has gained momentum and attention in part because of recent prominent cases, including the $500,000 bail set for a Baltimore protester after the death of Freddie Gray and the detention of a teenage boy, held at Rikers Island for three years on robbery charges that eventually were dismissed. He killed himself last year, two years after being released.
Separately, civil rights lawsuits, brought by the D.C.-based nonprofit Equal Justice Under the Law, have challenged bail practices as unconstitutional. The Justice Department has signed on in an Alabama case, saying preset bail, without an inquiry into a person’s ability to pay, violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection and due process clauses...
“Here we are transparent,” said D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert E. Morin, who will take over as chief judge in October. “We say that the evidence at this time demonstrates you are dangerous, and therefore you are to be detained. Judges from other jurisdictions who visit are surprised when there is no mention of a money bond.”"
Wow, this makes so much sense.
FB: This makes so much sense - obviously bail is a weird flawed system using money as a proxy for risk. "About two-thirds of defendants are released with terms that include drug testing, stay-away orders or weekly phone or in-person reporting. About 10 percent get tighter monitoring, such as GPS ankle bracelets and home confinement."
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