Also bail bondsman. They provide the bail bond for people who can't afford to pay (which surprise is the majority of people). For a % of course.
It's all a bit...predatory.
It's all a bit...predatory.
That is what I did when I faced this scenario.
Takes a long time. Speedy trials suddenly slow down. Pressure to get a person on more charges goes up. Offers get better. Requests for court appearances increase in frequency and more.
And if they’re judgement proof there’s nothing you can effectively do.
The theory of bail is that someone who is to trap the charged individually financially, by locking up as much of their liquid assets as possible behind a promise to actually show up to court. If people are needing to take out loans to pay bail, the bail was set too high. If the accused doesn't have enough assets to meaningfully pin them down with bail, cash bail is inappropriate. In a system that was effectively setting cash bail, the only scenario where someone would take a loan out would be to cover unexpected expenses between arrest and trial.
But that's not how bail is applied in the US. Cash bail is set absurdly high, because the prosecution knows that the individual is going to get a bail bond, and thus the 10% needs to be a significant hit, and the remaining 90% needs to be enough to convince a bounty hunter to chase someone down.