Bond is imposed as cash or surety, at the discretion of a judge, with consideration given to a person’s criminal history, the crime charged, one’s ability to pay, their risk to the community, and likelihood to reappear – amongst other factors. A cash bond is paid in full, to the court, and is returned upon conclusion of the case. A surety bond requires the use of a bonding company, which takes a certain percentage of the ordered bond as a non-refundable fee, for posting the bond on your behalf. Paying a bonding company’s fee enters a defendant and usually their friends and family who help post it, into a contract in which they are all held liable for the surety of not only court appearance, but compliance as well. Bonding companies are …show more content…
Additionally, pretrial detention is a major contributor to mass incarceration and jail overcrowding across the nation (Covert, B.: Johnson, 2014). With bail being the primary method of release in the United States, it has proven to be inequitable with a discriminatory effect on the poor (Gottfredson, p. 288). The negative impact of jail on an accused person, starts after the first 24 hours (Covert, B. 2017). People have children to worry about, jobs to attend, bills to pay, and it all stacks up or falls apart while they are incarcerated. A released defendant is one who can live with and support his family, maintain his ties to his community, and busy himself with his own defense by searching for witnesses and evidence and by keeping in close touch with his lawyer. An imprisoned defendant is subjected to the squalor, idleness, and possible criminalizing effects of jail. He may be confined for something he did not do; some jailed defendants are ultimately …show more content…
These measures include number of prior convictions, failures to appear, pending charges, current offense, current offense level, age, highest level of education, employment status, living situation, and substance abuse (Lowenkamp, C. & Whetzel, J., 2009). Levels of Supervision At the basic level, defendants may be required to make contact with a pretrial officer, by phone and/or face-to-face, one to three times per week. Depending upon compliance within the first 30-day period, this frequency of contact may be reduced or increased. Additionally, they would be on their own to make it to court appearances (Austin, J., Krisberg, B. & Litsky, P., 1985). An intermediate level not only includes the basic level requirements, but may also include required visits to a probation office, or drug treatment, depending on the jurisdiction and needs of the defendant (Austin, J., Krisberg, B. & Litsky, P., 1985). High risk defendants may include both basic and intermediate levels of supervision, while also incorporating GPS monitoring and/or in-home visits (Austin, J., Krisberg, B. & Litsky, P.,
Land of the Unfree: Mass Incarceration and Its Unjust Effects on Those Subjected To It and American Taxpayers
Conclusion: Congress hoped to achieve a greater degree of accuracy in assessing flight and danger of arrestees through establishing the Bail Reform Act of 1984, which set objective guidelines for judicial officers in assessing release conditions including taking into account for the first time the probability an offender will re-offend while on pretrial release. It was also hoped that the Act would bring back the community's trust in bond setting practice. Overall, the benefits of the Bail Reform Act of 1984 do exceed any detriments, but some problems do exist. These problems include the uniformity in the application of the Bail Reform Act of 1984, as well as the interpretation of dangerousness to the community. Through future legislative and executive reform, this Act will go through multiple changes until these issues are addressed.
The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for a number of reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. The ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system is caused by mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism.
Shapiro, David. Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration. Rep. New York: American Civil Liberties Union, 2011. Print.
One of those many changes was the separation of conventional rehabilitative methods to accepting new intermediate sanctions. “The rationale for intermediate punishments was based, in part, on the assumption that a wider range of sentencing options would allow judges to better match the punishments they issued to the seriousness of the offences committed” (Petersen and Palumbo, 1997). Intermediate sanctions are alternate punishments which fall between regular probation and incarceration. This can include community based treatment programs, in-patient drug treatment programs, house arrest, electronic monitoring, boot camps, and intense supervision. Some of the offenders may be required to attend therapy sessions whether that be family therapy, drug and alcohol therapy, or cognitive behavioral therapy. Other recommendations/ likely requirements would be parenting classes, mentoring programs, and interpersonal skill
They may have lost their family, homes, and most importantly, hope. Coping with lost time involves managing circumstances that occurred during incarceration such as deaths, weddings, relating to their children, and cultural changes. There are many consequences to society regarding wrongful convictions.
In the criminal court, you are looked upon differently because of the conviction. Everyday life will be hard because you can get rejected from jobs, loans, licensing, traveling out the country, and even housing (Messina). Bail reform to let people who have a charges that is not violent and a treat to the community go into program like a house arrest is more fair than to have them sit in a jail til who knows when the trial is. Staying a jail only will only expenditure more tax people money. As the court system is increasingly taking longer and longer to discharge cases due to shrinking budgets and a rollback on available resources, the possibility of a lengthy pretrial detention only increases, inviting the risk of detainees losing jobs, missing social and familial obligations and incurring social stigma (Reese).
from arrest through parole, rather than the result of the activities at any single phase. Addressing
Drug courts are, as the title states, for offenders with drug problems. The participants chosen for this method agree to terms of treatment, drug testing, and counseling. Their participation can lower their sentences and sanctions or even drop the charges against them completely. Supervision is used to monitor the offender’s participation in the various programs they are assigned, while also verifying their abstinence from drug use through testing (National Criminal Justice Reference Service, 2011). According to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service website, in 2009, there were about 2,400 drug courts in the U.S. These courts are separated into smaller categories based on the age or circumstances of the offenders, such as juveniles, adults, families, veterans, and even college students (OJP, 2010).
The past two decades have engendered a very serious and historic shift in the utilization of confinement within the United States. In 1980, there were less than five hundred thousand people confined in the nation’s prisons and jails. Today we have approximately two million and the numbers are still elevating. We are spending over thirty five billion annually on corrections while many other regime accommodations for education, health
Overcrowding in our state and federal jails today has become a big issue. Back in the 20th century, prison rates in the U.S were fairly low. During the years later due to economic and political factors, that rate began to rise. According to the Bureau of justice statistics, the amount of people in prison went from 139 per 100,000 inmates to 502 per 100,000 inmates from 1980 to 2009. That is nearly 261%. Over 2.1 million Americans are incarcerated and 7.2 million are either incarcerated or under parole. According to these statistics, the U.S has 25% of the world’s prisoners. (Rick Wilson pg.1) Our prison systems simply have too many people. To try and help fix this problem, there needs to be shorter sentences for smaller crimes. Based on the many people in jail at the moment, funding for prison has dropped tremendously.
The municipal and county branches, process defendants with misdemeanors, gross misdemeanors, and felonies. Though not the focus of this paper, the U.S. Pretrial Services (USPTS) is worth mentioning on occasion, for comparison. The USPTS emerged from the Pretrial Services Act of 1982 (18 US.C. §3152), and operates within clear and consistent guidelines, whereas local governments do not. Local organizations that operate a pretrial monitoring program, can structurally take many forms. Often, they may operate at the executive level, to remain independent and therefore impartial to the interests of the courts and detention facilities.
Trachtenberg, B. (2009, February). Incarceration policy strikes out: Exploding prison population compromises the U.S. justice system. ABA Journal, 66.
In the 1970s and 1980s, a massive amount of inmates began fillin up the United States prison systems. This huge rate of growth in this short amount of time, has greatly contributed to the prison overcrowding that the United States faces today. In fact, the prisons are still filled to the seams. This enormous flood of inmates has made it practically impossible for prison officials to keep up with their facilities and supervise their inmates. One of the main reasons why many prisons have become overcrowded is because of states’ harsh criminal laws and parole practices (Cohen). “One in every 100 American adults is behind bars, the highest incarceration rate in the world” (Cohen). The amount of inmates in corrections systems, throughout the nation, sky-rocketed to 708 percent between 1972 and 2008. Today, there are about 145,000 inmates occupying areas only designed for 80,000 (Posner). Peter Mosko, “an assistant professor of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice” (Frazier) stated, “America, with 2.3 million people behind bars, has more prisoners than soldiers” (Frazier). There have been studies that have shown “there are more men and women in prison than ever before. The number of inmates grew by an average of 1,600 a week. The U. S. has the highest rate of crime in the world” (Clark). Because of this influx in inmates, many prisoners’ rights groups have filed lawsuits charging that “overcrowded prisons violate the Constitution’s 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment” (Clark). It is clear that the United States corrections system needs to be reformed in order to eliminate this problem. Prison overcrowding is a serious issue in society due to the fact it affects prison ...
"A 'bailment' is the delivery of goods by one person to another for some purpose, upon a contract that they shall,, when the purpose is accomplished, be returned or otherwise disposed off according to the directions of the person delivering them. The person delivering the goods is called the 'bailor'. The person to whom they are delivered is called the 'bailee'.