By Jon Schuppe
JERSEY CITY, N.J.
─ On the ground floor of a deteriorating county courthouse, in a room
outfitted with temporary office furniture and tangles of electrical
wires, a cornerstone of America’s criminal justice system is crumbling.
A 20-year-old man in a green jail jumpsuit appears on a
video monitor that faces a judge. It is early June, and he has been
arrested for driving a car with a gun locked in the glove compartment.
If he were in almost any other courtroom in the country, he’d be ordered
to stay behind bars until he posted bail — if he could afford it. This
is what millions of people charged with crimes from shoplifting to
shootings have done for more than two centuries. The bail system,
enshrined in the Bill of Rights, is meant to ensure that all defendants, presumed innocent before trial, get a shot at freedom and return to court.
But allowing people to pay for their release has proved unfair to people
who don’t have much money. The poor are far more likely to get stuck in
jail, which makes them far more likely to get fired from jobs, lose
custody of children, plead guilty to something they didn’t do, serve
time in prison and suffer the lifelong consequences of a criminal
conviction. Those who borrow from a bail bondsman often fall into
crippling debt.
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