Why can people bail out of jail?
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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.
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