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Comment by nsxwolf | Hacker News Reader

The point of bail is to keep jails as empty as possible while ensuring defendants still show up for their day in court.

If you can't put up the whole amount, you can pay a bail bondsman a fee and you become his problem.

Both these concepts are good things for the accused. What is your alternative? Fill up the jails? Just use the honor system?

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I'm not sure if anyone is arguing for getting rid of bail? The alternatives some people advocate include setting bail lower and yes, sometimes relying on the honor system.

Lots more here:

https://www.themarshallproject.org/records/1439-bail-reform

> I'm not sure if anyone is arguing for getting rid of bail?

Bail, no, but money bail, yes; there is an active movement, at the federal level and within several states, to move away from, and ultimately eliminate, the system of money bail. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced a bill last year with that aim; in California, SB 10 passed the Senate last year and is now in the Assembly.

That's a false dichotomy. There's nothing inherent to the bail system that requires huge bail bonds that defendants cannot afford on their own. If bail schedules were abolished and bail was tailored to the individual, bail bondsmen would be unnecessary.

Bail is set at an amount high enough that people can't afford to lose it, and thus show up to be prosecuted for a crime. If you set bails so low that most people could afford them out of pocket, they'd be so low that the risk of loss wouldn't have any deterrent effect. 60% of Americans couldn't cover even a $1,000 unexpected expense: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/18/few-americans-have-enough-sa....

Question:

For someone who is already comparatively poor (ie. no savings), why is "being a fugitive who also owes someone money" worse than "being a fugitive"?

As a practical matter, the government doesn't have the resources to launch a manhunt for everyone who gets arrested in a bar fight. The bail bondsman, however, typically will have your collateral, etc.

Because the bail bondsman is not going to sell your debt to the collection and forget about it. He is going to salvage the bail money by catching you and bringing you to the court.

It sounds like 60% should have bail set at or below $1k

Bail is set absurdly high to force false guilty pleas.

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