The “Willful Non-Appearance” Trap: How Bail Reform Activists are Eroding Accountability In the push for bail reform and expanded pretrial release, some jurisdictions have quietly rewritten a core enforcement tool: redefining “failure to appear” (FTA) as “willful non-appearance.” What sounds like a minor semantic tweak—adding…
Accountability Matters: A Simple Text is Not Enough to Keep us Safe How Bail Agents Outperform Automated Texts in Getting Defendants to Court Lately, there have been a lot of articles being written on the value of a simple text reminder in the criminal justice…
Do Charitable Bail Funds Even Understand What Surety Bonds Are? Why is the Bail Project Against Surety Bonds…Maybe They Don’t Understand Them Over the past several months, charitable bail funds and bail reform advocates have been inundating the media with articles and research that show…
Bail Reform Success Bail Reform Advocates Finally Have Proof That Bail Reform Works in One Jurisdiction…It is Commonly Known as FANTASYLAND! No matter how many times they say it, or how many times they write it, free release on cashless bail will NEVER be as…
The Truth About Zero Bail: It Makes Zero Sense About 3 years ago, the District Attorney out of Yolo County, Jeff Reisig, conducted a simple research project. He wanted to know whether releasing criminal defendants on zero bail, also called cashless bail, was an effective…
How Cashless Bail and Bail Reform Policies Are Leading to Preventative Detention The Unintended Consequences of Pretrial Release Activism When activism overrides collaboration in the criminal justice system, the push for cashless bail and bail reform can backfire, steering policies toward preventative detention. This article…
Educating the Internet Together Bail Reform: Differentiating Between Truth and Propaganda Over the past decade or so, we have seen the online content of the bail reform activists increase substantially. From research studies to articles, these well-funded organizations have inundated the online marketplace with their…
The Hidden Dangers of Bail Reform How Pretrial Risk Assessments Decrease the Effectiveness of Cashless Bail and Pretrial Release Systems In the push for bail reform, pretrial risk assessments have emerged as a supposed solution to eliminate surety/cash bail systems and promote fairer pretrial release…
Thank you to everyone who took our 2024 State of Bail Survey and congratulations to the winner of our drawing for $100 Visa Gift Card. To be honest, the results of the survey were a little surprising as they showed that the majority of bail…
BEHIND THE PAPER WITH ERIC GRANOF If the Bail Project Hates Cash Bail So Much, Why Do They Utilize it Every Day? Happy New Year everyone! Another year has ended, and we can all look towards 2025 with hope and confidence that the failed experiment,…
