David Gaspar on why ending cash bail actually works—in the New York Times

David Gaspar (Leading with Conviction™ 2021) writes, along with his colleague Jeremy Cherson at The Bail Project, in the New York Times this week:

“President Trump recently declared that bail reform is contributing to a public safety ‘emergency’ in Washington and issued two executive orders that seek to halt decades of work to build a safer and fairer pretrial system. One of the orders singles out the District of Columbia for moving away from the system known as cash bail, in which a person must pay money to be released from jail before trial, even when their guilt hasn’t been determined — which is to say that a person’s freedom before trial depends on how much money he has.

“The second directive calls on the Department of Justice to identify states and jurisdictions with similar policies, with an eye toward penalizing them through funding restrictions. Mr. Trump has also signaled that he wants congressional leaders to advance legislation that would eliminate cashless bail nationwide.

Community safety, not personal wealth, best determines who is released and who is detained.

“Not so long ago, there seemed to be a growing understanding in this country that a justice system that trades in cash for freedom benefits no one. Editorial boards, celebrities and lawmakers rallied behind bail reform. States including New York, New Jersey and Illinois rewrote their laws. Local prosecutors won elections promising to end cash bail.

“Organizations like the Bail Project, where we work, started paying bail for people who couldn’t afford it and established that cash bail is as unnecessary as it is harmful. The people we have helped have returned to court 93 percent of the time, without any of their money on the line. When people do miss court, it’s often for the reasons that anyone misses an appointment: difficulty getting time off from work, unreliable child care, transportation issues and unexpected illness or emergencies.

“It didn’t take long for bail reform to become a scapegoat, especially as crime rates rose during the pandemic — a period marked by profound social and economic upheaval. Police unions, prosecutors’ associations and the commercial bail industry started campaigns that exploited these fears and distorted the truth. In states like New York, these campaigns succeeded in rolling back reform.

“We know that bail reform works: Community safety, not personal wealth, best determines who is released and who is detained. This does not mean guaranteeing everyone’s release. It simply means allowing judges to decide each case individually, using jail as a last resort.

“Places that have limited or ended cash bail have broadly seen no notable increase in rates of rearrest or of defendants missing court dates. With reminders and support, people show up to court because they want to resolve their cases. No system, legal or otherwise, can guarantee zero risk. But the goal of a fair justice system isn’t to detain people who have been accused as the default — it’s to uphold the presumption of innocence and reserve pretrial jailing as a last resort while the legal process runs its course.”

Read the full op-ed via this free gift article at NYTimes.com.