Bail Out
By Scott Alexander
May 16, 2017 at 07:19PM
via Slate Star Codex http://ift.tt/2rdjcQo
"So bail causes people to be stuck in jail for months, increases guilty pleas independent of defendants' actual guilt, and causes more convictions and longer sentences. Since many of the people harmed by this are innocent, or deserve less punishment than they end up receiving, this seems like an important point of leverage at which to try to fight incarceration. On the other hand, bail is supposed to serve a useful purpose in preventing suspects from running away. It is possible to do without?"
answer: yes, very likely, and thus it's a bit of a moral imperative.