Bernie Sanders Introduces Bill To End Money Bail Systems

BAILEY T. STEEN | FRIDAY, JULY 27, 2018

âThe rich man and the poor man do not receive equal justice in our courts. And in no area is this more evident than in the matter of bail.â â Robert F. Kennedy
On Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) decided to introduce a new bill calling for the federal abolition of money bail, a judicial practice which currently holds thousands of citizens in jail, prior to the conviction of any sort of crime, due to the suspectâs inability to pay for early release.
The Intercept reports the legislation, The No Money Bail Act, intends to withhold government funding from states who continue the current pre-trial system instead enforcing progressive alternatives. Working off similar legislation from Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), who secured 33 House co-sponsors, Sandersâ move toward criminal justice reform states that all new bail reforms ârequire a study three years after implementation to ensure that new alternate systems are also not leading to disparate detentions ratesâ, according to the official summary obtained from the senatorâs office. While his plan echoes similar measures proposed by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sandersâ abolition plan currently has no co-sponsors.
âIt has always been clear that we have separate criminal justice systems in this country for the poor and for the rich,â the summary declares. âA wealthy person charged with a serious crime may get an ankle monitor and told not to leave the country; a poor person charged with a misdemeanour may sit in a jail cell. And this disproportionately affects minorities â fifty percent of all pre-trial detainees are Black or Latinx.â
Sen. Sanders released accompanying statements after the billsâ release:
âPoverty is not a crime and hundreds of thousands of Americans, convicted of nothing, should not be in jail today because they cannot afford cash bail. In the year 2018, in the United States, we should not continue having a âdebtor prisonâ system. Our destructive and unjust cash bail process is part of our broken criminal justice system â and must be ended.â
While elimination of the bail system appears radical â cue Fox News segments screaming progressives are âpies in the skyâ â it actually has bipartisan support across the nation. Strong political power-brokers, such as Google, Facebook and even The Koch brothers, the billionaire GOP donors known as the mortal enemies of Sen. Sanders, have supported such criminal justice reforms in the past. The question is whether Sen. Sanders can secure support for his bill during this era of âtough on crimeâ Trumpism.
The Guardian reports itâs gaining traction on the state level, citing New Jersey legislation which recently abolished cash bail and progress in Maine and Maryland to significantly curb the practice. Consider these are northern Democratic states where progressives and left-of-centre neo-liberals control the power structures. In four southern/middle-America states, Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon and Wisconsin, this practice has been forbidden for years. There is reason to see the federal government following the states in reform. Itâll come down to where each party focus their reform efforts.
Democrats, represented in Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), show an interest in addressing pre-crime measures in The Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act, a push to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, removing the drug from the Controlled Substances Act, which moves the country closer towards potential legalisation.
Republicans, lead by senior White House adviser and son-in-law to the President, Jared Kushner, believe in reformation after prison time is served. In May, Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), joined by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), introduced Kushnerâs First Step Act, a bill ensuring prisoners from low-level, non-violent drug crimes to serious offences receive help towards societal integration and rehabilitative programs. Ignoring the sentencing, offence and for-profit prison problems which put citizens behind bars in the first place.
Sandersâ summary continues to claim that the for-profit bail industry is âmaking a fortuneâ from those exploited by the system. This isnât some radical fear-mongering on the senatorâs part. Itâs just the reality of the industry. According to a 2017 report from the ACLU, the non-partisan non-profit organization committed to protecting civil liberties, they found that both the courts and bail bondsmen make between $1.4 billion and $2.4 billion a year from those pay the price. Keep in mind America is the only country, besides the Philippines, where the bondsmen system remains legal.
This coincides with a December UCLA study which found that, between the years 2012 to 2016, $19 billion in cash bail was levied against those arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department. The researchers soon concluded that âcity residents pay a steep price before their innocence or guilt has been determined,â driving up two-tier justice between the rich and poor.
Now, I could bet my life that even most Californians, living in one of Americaâs most successful states, didnât have enough to make up their end of the bail costs. Not when corporate media like CNN acknowledge 40 percent of Americans canât afford a 400 dollar emergency when theyâre above minimum wage, let alone the liberty to skip work for time behind bars. The lowest bail amount, set at around $100, is an unthinkable expense of 25 percent of oneâs weekly income if weâre to assume they earn the âradicalâ hourly wage of $15.
If youâre poor, thereâs a good chance youâre staying behind bars.
But donât worry, when bails canât be made, thereâs a profit motive behind the incarceration. Often âprivate prisonsâ, a term weâll use lightly, have whatâs known as an âinmate quotaâ in contracts conducted between state governments. An inability to afford bail, for example â which is 60 percent of those in jail despite no criminal conviction â would help these ensure contractual demands are met. Otherwise companies often demand taxpayers fit the bill for each empty bed, according to an analysis from Public Interest.
âPretrial detention should be based on whether or not someone truly should not be freed before their trial,â Sandersâ summary continued. âIt should not depend on how much money they have, or what kind of mood the judge is in on a given day, or even what judge the case happens to come before. We also must insure that jurisdictions do not eliminate cash bail but find pretexts to continue unfairly locking people up before trial.â
It was 2016 when The Department of Justice declared Americaâs current money bail system was âunconstitutionalâ, siding with a class-action lawsuit challenging the practice as a discriminatory against the poor. Itâs built on a flawed concept that only monetary incentives can ensure people return to court. It was Robert Durst, the millionaire who murdered his neighbour Morris Black, who laughed this concept out of the room in his HBO interview. Whatâs a few thousand dollars when youâre free with more to spare, after all. The low-middle income individuals donât have such freedom, locked up cells without conviction, awaiting trial as their jobs, homes, families and prospects to build a defence are slowly eroded, coerced into pleading guilty.
How is this justice?
Well, according to Sanders, standing alone with his bill, it simply isnât.

Thanks for reading!
Bailey T. Steen is a journalist, editor, artist and film critic based in Victoria, Australia, but is also Putinâs Puppet⢠on occasion.
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Cheers, darlings!! đ