Roy Exum
Our terribly overcrowded Hamilton County Jail may get some help from an unsuspected corner – the Obama administration is tackling the fact that right now over 450,000 people are in our country’s jails because they are too poor to pay for bail. It is a violation of the Constitution to “punish people for their poverty.” As the Eighth Amendment provides, “… excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
For years civil rights lawyers have claimed our traditional bail system is a “wealth-based detention scheme” and now Alec Karakatsanis, the co-founder of the Equal Justice Project, is saying, “This is a huge scandal and it has been ignored over the last 30 years. If you are dangerous but rich, you can walk free. Whether you should stay in jail or not shouldn’t depend on how much you can pay.”
I believe any of us would agree with that. On Monday I went down a list of those listed on the Hamilton County Jail Booking Report that appears on Chattanoogan.com. There are a great number of those who committed misdemeanors and who certainly should have been arrested like those of greater crimes. That established, most of us will agree that some of those who were arrested should not be held behind bars at taxpayer expense prior to their hearings. Go ahead, study the mug shots and the charges -- we don’t need to keep some of them – at our expense. Some get caught in the system, stranded for weeks in many instances, simply because they are penniless.
Oh sure, if a person is dangerous, and likely to flee, or even questionable, that person should be detained regardless of bail – the Justice Department agrees with that. Now consider this: 12 million people are arrested and taken to jail in the United States every year. A full three-fourths of those (9 million) are arrested on misdemeanors. If we could eliminate the cost of locking non-threatening people up needlessly, it would save the justice system … drum roll please … $9 billion (with a ‘b’) per year!
Want another surprise? A recent study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that being released before trial makes a defendant 15.6 percent less likely to be found guilty.
This whole resurgence began in Calhoun, Ga., last year when Maurice Walker, said to be poor and disabled, was arrested and booked on a “pedestrian under the influence” charge. The standard bail for such in Calhoun is $160. Maurice didn’t have the money so he spent the next six days in the Gordon County Jail.
Two civil rights groups, The Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, and Equal Justice Under Law in Washington, found out about Maurice Walker’s case and they feel certain it violates the Eighth Amendment. The city of Calhoun was sued and immediately adopted a new policy that gives anyone who is arrested a hearing within 24 hours. But, wait, a federal judge struck that, saying it was unconstitutional to keep anyone in jail over the long weekend because they were too poor to pay.
At present everyone is awaiting the Walker vs. Calhoun ruling and the greatest point of interest is now from the United States Department of Justice. It has strongly intervened in the Georgia case and is the biggest attack on the traditional bail bond system since so many were trapped by escalating fees and fines by the courts in Ferguson, Mo., following the riots there.
In a brief supporting the Walker vs. Calhoun argument, ‘Justice’ offered a brief that said, “Bail practices that incarcerate indigent individuals before trial solely because of their inability to pay for their release violate the Fourteenth Amendment,” and that is true. The amendment clearly states, “… No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
The American Bar Association supports the Justice brief, saying its members have been skeptical of the money-bail system for years and now belief fixed bail schedules “must be abolished.”
In Washington, D.C., a program where non-violent defendants are released and supervised before their trial dates has worked well instead of setting a cash bail. The Department of Justice is urging other cities and counties to consider the same.
In Hamilton County, bail reform can’t come soon enough. Coupled with changes in how to curb the county jails from becoming modern-day mental hospitals, we could actually have a workable solution to overcrowding that would save Sheriff Jim Hammond tens of thousands of dollars in the near future.
Let’s move on it. Let’s join the Department of Justice approach with great glee. Why wait on Walker vs. Calhoun? Let’s do it now.
royexum@aol.com