Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Highlights
id799817621
The legislation, which civil rights groups warn is part of an ongoing wave of attacks on bail reforms, would be a win for the for-profit bail industry: bounty hunters and the Wall Street insurers that back them all profit from the United States’ unique bail bonds system, in which poor people facing criminal charges pay bail agents to post their bail and get out of jail as they await trial.
id799816556
target bail funds, charitable groups that collect donations to help bail people out of jail who can’t otherwise afford it. In the name of being tough on crime and fraud, the bill would subject these groups to potentially severe criminal penalties if they fail to comply with the regulations
id799816580
Charitable bail funds attempt to circumvent the bail bonds system by posting bail for people who cannot afford it. In doing so, they help disrupt what civil rights activists call a “two-tiered” system of justice, in which wealthy people can easily post bail and escape a life-altering jail sentence as their court cases progress, while poor people cannot.
id799816534
By circumventing the bail bond system, bail funds pose a threat to the profits of bail agents and the insurers that underwrite them.
id799817947
The commercial bail industry, White said, “relies on people being detained pretrial to make its money,” calling bail bonds a kind of “predatory payday loan.”
id799818017
if a person can’t come up with the $2,000, they will be forced to sign a contract with a bail agent to get out of jail — paying a nonrefundable fee, usually around 10 percent of the total. In exchange, the bail agent pays the full bail amount to the court, working with surety companies to underwrite the loan.