We have all heard the excuses and the witnessed the finger pointing. We have all heard the chants of those that support public sector pretrial release programs, “blame the bail bond industry…they are the reason that jails are crowded and the system is being unfair to those who need help.” While the voices chanting this nonsense are loud and widespread, it doesn’t make anything they are claiming true. In fact, their claims couldn’t be farther from the truth. The reality of our criminal justice system and the challenges posed by jail overcrowding have nothing to do with the commercial bail bond industry. People are not languishing away in jail because they cannot afford a bail bond. Quite the opposite is true. Families and defendants today now have more options available to them to secure a bail bond for release. Flexible payment plans are now widely available to those families who can’t afford the full amount of the bond.
This past week, there was a story out of Cook County, Illinois, complaining of jail overcrowding in the nation’s largest jail system. The interesting thing about this story is that Illinois is one of four states that does not allow commercial bail. So to say that commercial bail causes jail overcrowding is not just misleading but downright false. Check out the article below.
Written by: Eric Granof
Original article: Stuck in Cook County Jail: Prison population strains system, tax payer wallets
image credit: shutterstock
