How Bail Money Keeps Poor People in Jail

More awareness over the problems in America’s jail systems are coming to light in the past few years thanks to documentaries, activism, and social media. However, one of the largest private prisons is a few hours away in Nashville, TN. In this prison, many accused persons cannot afford their bail money and must remain jailed due to their economic status. Economic status should not determine your access to civil liberties. However, Tennessee’s prison system is doing just this. I specifically looked at how bail money is being used as a way to imprison poor people, and this system disproportionately effects the black community.

Black people are disproportionally affected by the prison system because their communities are over policed—an unsurprising fact since, in the South, the United States’ police force came about as a system to capture escaped slaves and preserve slavery. Furthermore, a higher proportion of black people live in poverty making bail money that can go into the thousands over a misdemeanor sometimes unattainable. Therefore, the system is rigged against this entire race from its inception. This is a problem. However, there has been little change to fix the racism in the police force in the South and in other regions of the US. Bail is just used to keep sometimes poor, black people unseen in society by imprisoning them.

While it might appear that keeping misdemeanor violators in prison until their trial a nonsignificant part of the legal system, it has serious consequences. Pretrial detention causes those accused of a crime to potentially lose their job, child custody, and housing. Furthermore, statistics show those who are in pretrial detention have a higher likelihood of “conviction, the likelihood of a jail sentence, and the length of the sentence imposed” (ACLU). The cost of bail is not just the amount a judge sets to be released, but the cost of an inmates’ entire social life. Both prices are too high, and it is even higher for the black community.

              In comparison to other major cities, Tennessee has a much higher level of detainees jailed prior to their trial. Tennessee has this statistic because they put such high bails—thousands of dollars—on misdemeanors. Other states and cities don’t do this because it is unfair to lower socioeconomic backgrounds and actually costs more to jail these pretrial detainees than just release them until court. For example, Washington D.C. has a legible level of pretrial detainees for misdemeanors. New York, another large city with diverse population, also has a staggeringly low (below 10%) of pretrial detainees for misdemeanors. Simply put, this system doesn’t work and is racist as it disproportionately affects black communities in the South.

            Other solutions to ensuring people turn up to their court dates and trials exist, but Tennessee just isn’t interested in trying them. In my opinion, they are not interested because it would no longer hide poor, oftentimes black people, in prison as if they were a blight on society. By doing this, the government does not have to address systemic racism in society.   

Reference:

http://www.aclu-tn.org/davidson-money-bail-infographic/