Bail Reform

A Two tier justice systeM

The cash bail system has created separate justice systems for the rich and the poor in this country.

Between 1970 and 2015, the use of pretrial detention in the United States went up 433%. Almost half a million people — 75% of the total number of people in jails in the U.S. — have not been convicted of a crime. Of these people sitting in jail, 90 percent remain incarcerated because they cannot afford bail. [1]  

In fact, the number of Americans sitting in jail who have not been convicted is larger than most other countries’ entire incarcerated population. [2]

Cash bail, as with nearly all aspects of the criminal and juvenile justice systems, disproportionately impacts people of color. And it has a destabilizing impact on communities, as people lose their jobs, housing, and ties to the community while sitting in jail. [3] Our cash bail system also leads to innocent people pleading guilty to crimes they did not commit, in order to get out of jail. [4]

As Polk County Attorney, the presumption of my office will be to not request cash bail unless someone is a threat to public safety.

1 https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2020/how-cash-bail-system-endangers-health-black-americans

2 https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/economic-justice/criminal-justice-debt-problems/

3 https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/04/the-dangerous-domino-effect-of-not-making-bail/477906/

4 https://www.vox.com/2016/8/24/12415268/bail-jail-prison-innocent-crime