If you have money, you can pay the bail and get released, while poor people can’t.
I don’t see why people with money should get benefits in the legal system?
It’s one of those things that mostly works because there aren’t many rich people.
Since crimes committed by rich folks are mostly white collar, they’re rarely a danger to society if let back onto the streets.
It’s one of those statistical solutions that doesn’t really do enough thinking about why the statistics shake out that way.
That said, there is a gradient, rich folks can make bail for petty offenses but for violent ones judges may be inclined to just deny bail purely because the rich prick would be able to post it easily and the crime they’re accused of warrants not letting them back out.
It is biased towards the rich. Much of American society and laws are biased towards the rich or biased towards large corporations.
So it is insane, but since it’s just as insane as the rest of the system, you aren’t supposed to notice.
Well it’s not insane because the laws in the us are made to be chains for the poor and spiderwebs for the rich. This is on purpose.
The lies we tell ourselves to cope, and the “justifications” the powerful use to keep those laws in place are what’s insane.
The 8th amendment has a clause that disallows “excessive bail”. In Stack v. Boyle, the Supreme Court found this to mean “that a defendant’s bail cannot be set higher than an amount that is reasonably likely to ensure the defendant’s presence at the trial.” So it follows that IN THEORY, bail is SUPPOSED to be set at an amount that is consistent with the defendant’s financial resources (including, it would also follow, increasing the amount for more wealthy people to ensure that it has the same proportionate effect on the defendant’s decision-making process).
Of course, that rule is just a bunch of meaningless words if nobody enforces it… and guess what, the main way to enforce this is by bringing a suit against the government alleging that they violated the rule. So IN PRACTICE (speculation warning here, I’m just some guy), I would imagine that they just set bail schedules at a level where anyone who can afford to pay won’t be able to win an “excessive bail” lawsuit, and anyone who can’t afford to pay it will also probably not be able to afford the cost of that lawsuit.
And something tells me that we aren’t likely to see a wealthy person suing the government for not setting bail high enough for them.
cannot be set higher than an amount that is reasonably likely to ensure the defendant’s presence at the trial
That is a sentence that you can really roll over in your head. It does not necessarily also mean an amount within the resources of the defendant. I watch a lot of hearings, and something I’ve seen at least a few times is a set of allegations and past facts (usually something like multiple failures to appear in the past, and/or fleeing from police) in a situation where the actual charge being bailed on has a statutory requirement that bail be offered. The judge doesn’t want to let the person out on bail, so therefore sets the bail at $1 million or something which is functionally the same thing as not giving them bail.
Usually this triggers a motion for a hearing about the bail amount by the defense lawyer to argue down the amount, but if the court date on the charge is earlier than court date for the motion, it becomes a moot issue.
And since bail is generally set at the discretion of a judge (I’m sure some jurisdictions have limitations, and others just “guidelines”), it can be increased based on the perceived heinousness of the crime or in some cases outright denied entirely.
It is, I don’t think it can be explained as “not insane”
Logically it favors the rich, just like every other aspect of society.
So I guess it’s no more insane than so many other aspects of society, like how Enron Musk can get paid more by Tesla than every single worker working there.It’s not insane, just very classist
I don’t see why people with money should get benefits in the legal system?
Because they are rich, duh!
Illinois just got rid of cash bail and it’s working pretty well so far, so at least there are folks there who see how crazy it is too.
And republicans (or, at least one, in my district) are campaigning here on how cashless bail is letting criminals go free.
Cashless bail isn’t letting criminals go free any more than cash-based bail was. I am just as safe. There is nothing to see here, except a more level playing field for all.
Why do the republicans in charge hate people so much? I don’t think their constituents hate people nearly as much as the leaders.
Isn’t it one of the basic principles in that legal system that people with more money get more rights?
Yes. Better rights, too.
I don’t see why people with money should get benefits in
the legala capitalist system.I agree cash bail is insane, however, reframing the problem should help make it clear what is really going on
Because being rich is measurable evidence that you are a better person than a poor. You have more ability to spend money, powering the economic engine, and capital to fund new ventures, either directly by starting businesses and employing people or indirectly through savings and investments.
A rich person in jail objectively harms society.
Maybe if we ate the rich and distributed their assets it would be an alternative?
I like how you redefined what a “better person” is to mean more like “better company resource”.
If you are a company resource then you are a poor, and not an economic engine. True riches create companies and employ poors.
Let vote for the right president in this coming election, the system sucks now
Lols :)
