Recently, student attorneys from the University of Baltimore wrote an article for the Baltimore Sun distinguishing the problems with Baltimore’s overpopulated jails. The main issue is that there are a ton of individuals who are in jail but are not yet convicted of a crime. Why? Simply because they cannot afford bail to get out of jail. These bail amounts have absolutely no relation to their income level and there is not enough time put into discovering these folks income levels to give them a fair bail amount.
There was a new judicial rule that recently executed to combat the effects of money bail and that it hardly reduces pretrial incarceration rates. This new rule states that a judge should treat money bail as a last resort, and when setting a monetary bail it should reflect the person’s income level. Unfortunately, a lot of judges have understood this as denying these people bail instead of setting a monetary bail amount. There are even certain examples cited that have occurred in the past year. In September, 31 individuals appeared before a judge for their bail hearings, and of those 31, 27 were denied bail.
So instead of letting these people out on bail, the new rule states that there should be alternatives to setting high bail amounts, or no bail. Some of these alternatives include: Periodic reporting, restrictions on travel, stay-away orders, mandatory employment or attendance at school, drug and alcohol testing and/or mandatory counseling. This new rule promotes release and prevents the incredibly high bail amounts despite the person’s income level. Simply sentencing a person with no bail is not adhering to the new rule and should not be the default response.
If you are in need of representation in a criminal trial, please contact on the Law Offices of Nicholas J. Del Pizzo today!