Last week, Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and 15 co-defendants turned up at the jail in Fulton County, GA, to post bail. All but one posted bail and left town. (Trump paid $200,000; Giuliani and Eastman paid $150,000 each.) Ali Velshi reports, that the U.S., although a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty, they often need to put up collateral that, in theory, incentivizes them to stay out of trouble and show up to their court date, where their money will be returned, provided they haven’t been arrested in the interim.
Cash bail or money bail varies significantly by state. Generally, defendants are offered bail unless they’re accused of a capital crime or determined to be a flight risk. A judge determines the amount, from a few hundred to a few million dollars. According to the American Bar Association (ABA), median cash bail is $10,000. Defendants who can post bail or pay for a bail bond get to go home to await trial. Those who can’t must stay in jail.
A half million Americans, stuck in jail
According to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, there are roughly 650,000 individuals in jails in this country. (Not prison: That’s a much higher number.) Roughly 75 percent of those 650,000 are in jail in pretrial detention. (They haven’t been convicted.) The vast majority of them are there because they can’t afford to post bail. So, if two people are accused of the same crime, the one with money gets to go home. The other stays in jail.
According to the ABA, the national median bail amount is about $10,000, and the median annual income of people who are in pretrial detention is about $15,000. These people must provide roughly eight months of income upfront to post bail. According to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, nearly 60 percent of pretrial detainees are in jail because they can’t afford to post bail. Black and Latino men are often asked to post roughly twice the amount as their White counterparts for committing exactly the same crime.
The system puts poor, low-wealth and low-income Americans at a huge disadvantage. In effect, the cash bail system criminalizes poverty. What’s more, study after study has shown that pretrial detention increases the rate of recidivism, of mental health issues, of homelessness and unemployment. Jails are violent, abusive environments that perpetuate the very violence that the system is designed to prevent.
Lately, more states having been working to reform their systems. Alaska, Illinois and New Jersey have ended money bail altogether. California and New York take into account a person’s wealth and income when deciding on bail amounts or other pretrial release conditions.
LISTEN: ALI VELSHI EXPLAINS THE INJUSTICE OF CASH BAIL
WATCH: ALI ON CASH BAIL IN THE U.S.
MORE FROM MSNBC’S ALI VELSHI