, Columnist
Bail Reform Is Overdue, But Finally Here
Jailing defendants because they are poor is on the way out.
Going obsolete?
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The concept of bail occupies an honored if uneasy place in our iconography of justice. Night after night on TV police procedurals, judges set high bails, and indigent defendants desperately tell their lawyers, “I can’t possibly afford that!”
In the real world, things are changing. Last week, Maryland became the latest state to decide that no defendant should be jailed simply because of an inability to afford bail. The reform is long overdue, and the only people who should truly be upset are those who make their living as bail bondsmen. (More on them in a moment.)