So for example, a guy murders people, gets arrested and a bail is set for 5 million dollars. Does the guy walk off if the bail is paid? plz 🙂
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The idea of bail is that if you flee the city, state, don’t show up as assigned, etcetera, you forfeit the bail amount. The assumption is that the risk of losing that money will keep you from leaving. That’s why bail amounts tend to rise with the severity of the crime (and the possible punishment). And if a crime is especially severe, or the accused has demonstrated themselves as likely to skip town (a “flight risk”), they may be denied bail entirely.
On the other hand, there exists a thriving (for better or worse) industry of bail bondsman. Under this system, a bail bondsman pays the bail for you, and you agree to pay the bail bondsman (usually) 10% of the amount of the bond. Because bail is returned to the payer (in this case the bondsman) if you abide by conditions, if the bail bondsman pays your $50,000 bail and you show up to hearings etcetera, the bondsman makes $5,000.
On the other hand, if you flee or otherwise violate the conditions of bail, the bondsman often assumes the responsibility of arresting you, or hiring someone else to do so. Basically a bounty hunter.
Both the system of bail bondsmen/bounty hunting and the larger system of bond has come under more and more criticism. There are lots of examples of bounty hunters acting unlawfully or hurting innocent people (the practice of legal bounty hunting is almost exclusive to the US today). Studies have pointed out that judges seem to disproportionately set higher bails for minorities or deny them bail entirely. For poor people, not being able to pay bail basically means going to jail for as long as months and months without having been convicted of any crime.
Some states and cities have reduced or eliminated cash bail, replacing it with a system where check-ins and voluntary monitoring are used to ensure a person show up to the various parts of a case. It’s been successful in many cases, and it kind of makes sense. After all, if someone skips bail and flees under a cash bail system, its not like the government throws up their hands and says “he got us”. At that point the person is a fugitive and the government is obliged to find them. The odds that you can evade the government forever is pretty damn low, and probably enough to keep most people from fleeing without the need for a large sum of money.
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