The Bail Project recently released another manufactured study out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The study shows defendants released for free with no accountability show up for court more so than those who have skin in the game with a financially secured bond. While the data supporting this claim borders on thin to non-existent, one statistic does jump out.
One of the data points that The Bail Project looked at was how long defendants stay in jail before being released based on the release mechanism they utilized. This includes cash bail paid by a third party, surety bail, pretrial release and release by The Bail Project. According to their own data, defendants bailed out by The Bail Project stayed in jail two and a half times as long as defendants who bailed out on a financially secured bond with a licensed bail agent. Wow, what a statistic. That seems like a pretty substantial number, especially from a group that has consistently complained about the amount of time defendants spend in jail.
Below are some calculations showing how much more expensive it is for counties to have The Bail Project involved in their system. Using the same formula The Bail Project used in a 2023 report on their website by Tara Watford (Unlocking the Truth: A Closer Look at Cash Bail Data), which includes a $77.69 cost per day for a jail stay, we have broken out the cost for each form of release based on days spent waiting to be released.
| Days Incarcerated Before Release | Cost per person based on $77.69/day* | Cost to Tulsa for 117 people** | |
| Release on a Secured Bond | 4 | $310.76 | $36,358.92 |
| Release on Own Recognizance | 22 | $1,709.18 | $199,974.06 |
| Release by The Bail Project | 12 | $932.28 | $109,076.76 |
| Release by Pretrial Services | 7 | $543.83 | $63,628.11 |
*Jail cost per day used by The Bail Project in 2023 study, Unlocking the Truth: A Closer Look at Cash Bail Data
** number of people released by The Bail Project out of sample 3,320
As you can see, those individuals who bail out using The Bail Project cost Tulsa and taxpayers an additional, $310.76 per defendant in additional jail days. Applying that to the sample size of 3,320 defendants used in the Tulsa study, the total cost of the 117 people bailed out by The Bail Project was $109,076.76 (This cost was calculated by multiplying the 117 people by 12 days to get 1404 total jail days at $77.69 per day). If those same 117 people used a bail agent, the cost to the county for jail stays would have only been $36,358.02 (This cost was calculated by multiplying the 117 people by 4 days to get 468 total jail days at $77.69 per day).
That is a difference of close to $73,000 for only 117 defendants. The costs associated with OR releases for those 117 defendants would be $199,974.06 and Pretrial Service Releases would be $63,628.11. Apparently, release through The Bail Project is one of the most costly mechanisms and is one of the lease efficient, leaving our jails crowded.
Not so sure that The Bail Project intended to promote this huge cost and huge deficiency in their release process, but I guess we should thank them for being so honest and proving surety bail is a more efficient and affordable option for Tulsa.
Read The Bail Project’s study.