Thanks for the clarification, Firethorn. Wow, that's even worse.
How?
Okay, to expand on how I see it.
The program takes over some of the work of bail bondsmen. The state has "pretrial services" which takes a look at the suspect, such as family ties, property, assets, etc... They determine whether or not the person is a flight risk, or a potential danger to others if let out of jail. They make a recommendation to the judge, along with maybe the prosecutor or defense attorney. The judge makes a decision whether to let the prisoner out, and under what
non-monetary conditions, such as an ankle bracelet, surrendering their passport, etc... No longer is it "Crime X = $X bail", regardless of the ability of the defendant to pay.
This, done properly, can actually save money while increasing the rate of people showing up at trial, because pre-trial services does things like call people up to remind them that they have court tomorrow. Remember, most criminals are stupid, and jail is expensive.
Anyways, as I see it bail companies ended up distorting the bond process. They converted a bond amount into a bond
fee. This allowed bond requirements to spiral out of the ability of the average person to pay, which bond companies love because that just increases their income from that 10% fee. It got quite ridiculous, despite judges supposedly being required to set bond amounts that people could actually pay. You also had some problems in that it was very difficult for judges to deny bail for parties that were obviously at high risk of violence or flight.
It turns out that
money isn't actually a good guarantee of people showing up to court. Either they don't have enough assets to put up a serious bond, or they have enough to flee anyways, if that makes any sense. Most things tying people down are family and tangible assets they can't just get rid of, like their house.
By getting rid of cash parole, they can get MORE people out of their jails, at least the poorest drug-addicts and such, who don't need to be in it. This saves a lot of money in that it gets people out of the expensive jails.
It can even improve justice. Imagine this: You're being held on $100k bail, but you don't even have $1k in the bank to tease a bail bondsman into helping you. You are innocent, or at least confident that you can prove a reasonable doubt for the crimes you are accused of. The prosecutor is being an idiot. But, if you don't get out of jail in the next 3 days or so, you are going to lose your job, apartment, and stuff. The prosecutor is offering a plea-bargain with no jail time, but it will be a month before you can go to trial. Do you plead guilty or not?
This *expletive deleted*it actually happens on a regular basis.
