AMERICA incarcerates people awaiting trial at triple the world average. Every day, roughly 500,000 people who have been convicted of no crime sit in county jails. Some are there because a judge determined they were too dangerous to return to the streets. But the vast majority end up behind bars because they could not afford to post “bail”, a returnable payment designed to ensure they’ll show up for their court dates. In practice, this means that wealthy people like Bill Cosby (who wrote a quick check for $1m yesterday after being charged with sexual assault) remain free before their trials while the poor are locked up.
Money buys all kinds of things, so it is not surprising that people who have been charged with crimes do better when they have more of it. There are rather stark inequalities introduced by most states’ money-bail system, as an...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/1UiaJA5
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