Week 10 Post 1 Not a Crime to Be Poor By Peter Edelman

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Section 3: Money Bail
Money Bail- A sum of money that a defendant is ordered to place with the court ostensibly (apparently or purportedly, but perhaps not actually) as a guarantee that he or she will appear for trial - is utilized for offenses ranging from the most heinous down to the lowest level of crimes

  • Local jail populations grew by 19.8% between 2000 and 2014 (95% of this growth was accounted for by pretrial detention) In Philadelphia cost of running jails is around $110-$120 per inmate per day - Lorelei Laird "Court systems Rethink the Use of Financial Bail" ABA Journal April 1, 2016
  • Rikers Island, New York - 45,000 people jailed there solely because they cannot afford bail and on any given day 1,500 people have been there for over a year without trial (400 of them have been there for more than 2 years without trial) Christopher Mathias, Huffington Post April 14, 2015 
  • Of the 77,000 people who come through during the year , 85% have not been convicted of a crime "What is happening at Rikers Island?" New York Times, December 15, 2014
  • In 2010 Human Rights Watch calculated New York City was paying $42 million every year to lock up non-felony defendants 
  • Preventative Detention- Idea of holding defendants pending trial to keep them committing further crimes 
  • Arnold Foundation- Invested 1.2 Million to create the Public Safety Assessment (evidence based algorithm that works in real time to assess the level of risk posed by defendants) The foundation found age, criminal record with greater weight for more recent offenses, and previous failures to appear in court are the most salient factors for assessing risk while employment status, community ties and history of drug/alcohol abuse are factors of much less value (important: nothing in regard to paying fines on time but instead showing up to court) - Laird "Court Systems Rethink" 
  • Charlotte NC- Use Arnold tool for one year and jail population was reduced by 20% with no increase in reported crime 
  • 500,000 people in jail everyday because they cannot afford bond - Alec Karakatsanis of Civil Rights Corps 



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