[Peace] [Announce] Bail Burden Keeps US Jails Stuffed With Inmates

[William Brown]

Quite an indictment of Lubbock, TX!  Illinois is one of 4 states that ban commercial bail bondsmen. It's less of a problem here in Champaign County - judges seem to use ROR a lot, and since only 10% of bail is required to bond out, many do.  But I think there are some things like DUI that require a mandatory, pretty high bail.  It would be good to explore the local statistics, if you can get them.  The sheriff should have stats on how many of the population have bail set.

One clarification - "2/3 of the nations inmates" refers to local jail inmates only.  A little less than 1/3 of total US incarcerated population is in local jails. 

Bill


--- On Thu, 1/21/10, Kimberlie Kranich <kakranich at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Kimberlie Kranich <kakranich at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Announce] Bail Burden Keeps US Jails Stuffed With Inmates
> To: "Bob Illyes" <illyes at uiuc.edu>, announce at communitycourtwatch.org, peace at lists.chambana.net, peoplespotluck at lists.chambana.net
> Date: Thursday, January 21, 2010, 6:07 PM
> Heard a
> story this evening on All Things Considered on NPR on
> WILL-AM 580 that was packed with information, statistics,
> and humanness about how 2/3 of the nation's inmates are
> nonviolent offenders and the only reason they are in jail is
> because they cannot pay their bail, sometimes as little as
> $50.
> 
> Used to be that people were released on their own
> recognizance.  When that was the case, people showed up
> for their court date.  Now, companies that provide bail
> money make a lot of money, according to the report.
> 
> The story is 20 minutes long.  If interested, you can
> listen to it or read it at the link below.
> 
> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122725771
> 
> It is the first in a three-part report. Might be an angle
> to look at locally.
> 
> ~Kimberlie
> 
> 
> 
>       
> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Announce mailing list
> Announce at lists.communitycourtwatch.org
> http://lists.communitycourtwatch.org/listinfo.cgi/announce-communitycourtwatch.org
> 





-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.