"Mustafa Willis was arrested for a crime he didn't commit. He was offered bail, but, because he couldn't afford to pay, he stayed locked up for months, punished for a crime he had only been accused of.

Bail has been around for centuries. It's supposed to protect the rights of defendants like Mustafa who haven't been convicted of anything yet. At the same time, bail gives courts an extra guarantee that people are going to show up for their trials. But can a system built on money ever be fair to the poor?

Trends in State Courts is an annual, peer-reviewed publication that highlights innovative practices in critical areas that are of interest to courts, and often serves as a guide for developing new initiatives and programs and informing and supporting policy decisions. Trends in State Courts is the only publication of its kind an

On December 5, 2016, Assembly member Rob Bonta, in partnership with California State Senator Bob Hertzberg, introduced the California Money Bail Reform Act of 2017 (Assembly Bill 42 and Senate Bill 10). As an ally to communities of color, Bonta was driven to address the disparities created by the bail system. The legislation aims to better serve Californians by reforming the commercial surety bail system.

"In 2015, government agencies in New Orleans collected $4.5 million in the form of bail, fines and fees from people involved in the criminal justice system and, by extension, from their families. Another $4.7 million was transferred from the pockets of residents to for-profit bail bond agents. These costs have become the subject of considerable public attention. Some view them as a necessary way to offset the expense of operating the criminal justice system.

"Significant legislative and constitutional improvements to New Jersey’s pretrial justice system passed in 2014 and went into effect on January 1, 2017. The Pretrial Justice Institute sat down with Roseanne Scotti, New Jersey State Director of the Drug Policy Alliance and one of the leaders in the effort to improve the state’s pretrial system, to talk about how it came about.

Pretrial Justice Institute
This brief summarizes what researchers and practitioners have learned as of January 2017 about the costs of the current system compared to legal and evidence-based improvements such as moving away from money bail, implementing pretrial risk assessment, providing court reminders, and monitoring or supervision.

"In addition to the 1.6 million people incarcerated in federal and state prisons, there are 646,000 people locked up in more than 3,000 local jails throughout the U.S. Seventy percent of these people in local jails are being held pretrial - meaning they have not yet been convicted of a crime and are legally presumed innocent. One reason that the unconvicted population in the U.S. is so large is because our country largely has a system of money bail, in which the constitutional principle of innocent until proven guilty only really applies to the well off.

"Texas’ resource-based bail system keeps low-risk individuals unnecessarily detained before trial and allows risky defendants to buy their freedom."

"The installation of the scanner in Orange County Jail has cut down on inmates sneaking in drugs"

"In 2012, the Hamilton County Jail in southwest Ohio was the first jail in the state to purchase a SecurPass full-body digital scanner, using a $243,000 federal grant. Thereafter, prisoners at the facility were subjected to scans in addition to strip searches during intake. Jail officials reported the device revealed a small gun, a screwdriver, pocket knives, balloons filled with drugs and numerous other hidden items. But in August 2013 the Ohio Health Department ordered the county to stop using the scanner. Why?