Cash Bail vs. Surety Bail: Bail Reformers’ Misleading Conflation In a recent article from the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy, the author argues that high cash bail is the root cause of rising county jail bills and growing pretrial detention. While the piece…
The Top 10 Bail Stats of All Time Part 2 (#5 through #1) We hope that you enjoyed last week’s list of top bail statistics #10 – #6. Understanding these important statistics is essential for anyone looking to successfully debate criminal justice and bail reform…
The Echo Chamber of the Bail Reform Movement “Be a voice, not an echo.” – Albert Einstein When one reads a story about our criminal justice system today, it is often framed as a “debate” on criminal justice or a “debate” on bail reform. While…
Part 2: Stack v. Boyle: How the Supreme Court Affirmed Financial Accountability in Bail In 1951, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in Stack v. Boyle that continues to shape bail law and policy more than seven decades later. While the case is…
Part 1: Taylor v. Taintor: The Landmark Supreme Court Case That Legitimized Surety Bail in America The bail profession has a long history. From biblical times to the modern era, bail has played an essential role in balancing individual liberty with the need to ensure…
The Misleading Pretrial Numbers Game How Cashless Bail Supporters Inflate Court Appearance Stats In the heated debate over cashless bail policies, supporters routinely highlight impressive court appearance rates, often claiming 85% to 95% success or higher, as evidence that releasing defendants without money bail or…
Why We Fight for Bail Accountability. Appearance. Justice. The bail profession keeps the system working. As a surety representative in the bail profession, you spend a great deal of time traveling across the country, working with bail agents, state associations, and other criminal justice stakeholders.…
Eroding Accountability: How Bail Reform is Creating a Two-Tiered Justice System Ability-to-pay schemes and equity-driven policies are not making the justice system better but are instead creating a system where some groups of people can commit crimes and other groups can’t. In a functioning criminal…
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…
