July 15, 2024
Half of the people in the United States struggle to afford a $400 emergency expense…but this known statistic doesn’t stop the legal system from imposing the average bail set on a felony case in America to be a dangerous $10,000.
What is happening currently in Connecticut in regards to its cash bail system? Clearly put by Attorney Taubes in the CT Mirror,
“Lives are being destroyed, families shattered, communities of color devastated. [Connecticut 2024 Governor] Lamont seems intent on appeasing the most regressive impulses of the carceral state.
Close to half a million people across the country are trapped in jail BEFORE being even convicted of a crime that they were merely accused of. Before even getting their day in court on a “presumption of innocence”, close to half a million people are administratively stuck in jail due to the money bail system perpetually aiming to criminalize poverty. The costs paid to bail bonds companies are owed even after an accused person is found NOT guilty at trial and even when the charges are DROPPED.
What is cash bail actually doing for people in jail? The Bail Project has researched and analyzed how people return to 91% of their court appearance dates without ANY of their own money on the line. What are the results of cash bail? It is making people jailed for even two days more likely to lose their vital jobs, not able to pick up their children from school, not able to support their loved ones at home, lose custody of their children, and suddenly fall behind on rent. Is cash bail meant to make society safe or is it meant to destabilize Black, people of color, and low-income families even more, so that they can be stopped and targeted again by this “justice” system?
Who is winning from this violent dehumanization and profiteering on people’s livelihood? Most definitely, the private bail bond industry that turns over a profit of $2.4 billion per year. This system requires people accused of a crime to pay thousands of dollars to be released before trial.
Only TWO countries in the world have a for-profit (as in systems monetarily profiting off of people’s suffering, anxiety, and fear from the legal system so that they can return back to their loved ones) bail bond system. America and the Philippines. The Philippines only learned this system because it was once a colony of the U.S.
What occurs when a State decides to eliminate cash bail? Let’s look at New Jersey. Drexel University and Boston University studied the results of elimination of cash bail, and found that the policy successfully reduced the state’s jail population without increasing gun violence. The number of people detained before their court date in 2015, which was 8,899 – drastically reduced to 4,976 after cash bail was eliminated. The study conclusively found that the state was not any less safe with the elimination of cash bail. Instead, more people were reunited with their loved ones instead of wasting their precious lives in jail.
Now what’s happening in Connecticut? Are we also progressively aiming to tackle one of America’s biggest inhumane shames, mass incarceration?
Attorney Taubes fills us in on what is occurring in Connecticut’s current policies,
“Connecticut has… recently passed a new bail law that will further punish the poor and exacerbate racial disparities. Under this law, individuals charged with certain offenses, including mere possession of a common firearm magazine, face astronomical bail amounts. If deemed a “serious risk,” they must pay 30% of their bond in cash, with no option for a bondsman. Poor families, disproportionately of color, will be forced to choose between financial ruin or watching a loved one languish in jail pretrial.”
While Connecticut’s neighbors are implementing ways to cancel the violent punishment on poverty by ending cash bail, Connecticut’s elected officials have elected to implement the opposite, and progressively choose mass incarceration through cash bail and pretrial detention for people regardless of convictions.
Expecting the end of cash bail & mass incarceration,
Sneha Jayaraj
