Why can people bail out of jail?
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Bail is for **before** you’ve been convicted of the crime you’re accused of. In the eyes of the law you’re innocent.
Bail is a temporary release of the accused person before the trial. The decision to grant bail, and conditions on it, are dependent on a number of factors including the crime committed, the persons past record at honoring bail if any, how likely they seem to run, their links to the community and their financial means.
Barring a history of bail violations bail should normally only be outright denied in fairly extreme cases – eg mass shooters who get caught at the scene where everyone saw them do it. There’s an extreme public safety risk and the case against them is overwhelming.
One common aspect of bail is the person is to put down some sum of cash as a deposit they forfeit if the don’t show for trial.
Cashless bail is another concept where the idea is the person has enough links to the community they’re not going to start their entire life over rather than not turn up for trial on a normally low to moderate charge.
In the US (and some other nations), the legal system is set up with the presumption that an a person accused of a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Thus, it would be wrong to force people to possibly be imprisoned–maybe for years, waiting for trial–if they are actually innocent. However, if accused people are simply arrested and released, many do not return to court to face the criminal accusations (whether they are innocent or guilty). So, a bail system was developed, so that a person had to provide some kind of security that he would return to court. If the person on bail does not return, the court claims the money, which can then be used to help track down the person and bring them before the court.
The judge decides if you’re eligible for bail, and how much.
Having people locked up in jail isn’t great. Could make jail be overcrowded. It’s another person to take care of behind bars. Letting them go home is overall a win for everybody as long as the person isn’t a threat to those around them. So judges do have that option.
Not to be confused with Prison, which is where you go after the Guilty verdict/plea.
People are held in jails pending trial. And because people are considered innocent until proven otherwise everyone in jail is innocent. It is just that due to the investigation, flight risk or risks to others they can not be let go. But this is up to a judge to evaluate and if there is no risks people have a right to be let go until their trial date. Bail is a system for when the judge think they might end up fleeing but not if taking the punishment would be cheaper. So the judge say a cash amount that they think will make sure you get to your trial. When you show up to trial you get the bond money back again.
Bail is not for people who are sentence to jail.
Bail is a way to ensure someone who has been arrested shows up for trail.
Normally there is a bit of time between being arrested of a time and going to trail for it.
In the US you have in theory the right to a speedy trial, but in practice people may spend quite lot of time awaiting their day in court.
Not everyone who gets accused of a crime is actually found guilty later.
Not every crime is a big one like murder or bank robbery.
When someone is first arrested a judge has to decide what to do with them.
If they are sent home to await their trail, they may not show up when the time comes. On the other hand if they keep everyone accused of a minor crime in jail until the time of their trial, the jails would be even fuller than they are today.
It makes no sense to keep someone waiting in jail for their trial if the worst punishment they could get if found guilty was a fine.
Bail is a compromise.
The person accused of the crime puts up money or something of value as a hostage to ensure they come back to stand trial.
If they show up for their trial as promised, they get the bail they posted as a guarantee back. (Even if they are found guilty at the trial.)
The bail is just a way to ensure that people show up in court.
Not everyone has money to put up though.
Bail-bondsmen will put up bail for those who don’t have money themselves. They will typically ask for 10% of the money.
So if you have bail set at $50,000 and don’t have $50,000 a bondsman will post the bail for you in exchange for $5000.
The critical part is they will keep the money you paid them.
If you had paid the full bail yourself you would have gotten it back but if you have to go though a bondsman you won’t.
Being poor sucks.
If you have a bondsman put up a bail for you and don’t show up in court the bondsman will lose the money they put up for you. this will make them unhappy.
Bounty hunters may get involved.
Because it is assumed that the bail amount is so much for them and so valuable that they will arrive in court. The system assumes that people don’t want to lose significant sums of money for not arriving. That’s why it’s so important to set proper bail amounts for different people.
Bail is only used for people awaiting their time in court, so in theory are still innocent and the bail conditions are set as such that they don’t represent a threat to the public and are likely to turn up to the court proceedings.
Picture this:
Your female neighbor calls 911 on you, her upstairs neighbor, for threatening her. You didn’t do it, and don’t really know why she said this, but the police come and arrest you for making threats.
Next day rolls around, you don’t make it to work and can’t call them. You lose your job.
Next week rolls around, you need to pay your rent, but you are in jail and can’t. You lose your apartment.
Your trial date comes up and everybody realizes it was a big mistake to arrest you and that the woman was mistaken and thought you were somebody else. You are set free, just 2 weeks later. But you have no belongings, no place to live, and no job.
This is why letting people out of jail to prepare for their trial and live their life is important.
In states with cashless bail (NY, NJ, AK, IL), the court is more concerned about how much of a threat to society a person is when let out. If the person fits the criteria of being a low to no risk offender, the person is bailed.
TLDR: The metric used is risk to society if free
Put simply, you’re innocent until proven guilty. The more serious the charge = higher bond (typically 10% of the bail amount) to get out. If it’s a very serious charge they could also deny bail.
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