It is an important political point that many places that pride themselves as being "tough on crime" actually underfund their police departments, and many places that conservatives would call "soft on crime" actually spend way more public money on law enforcement.
I write to express support for Charlie Hall. He's right about bail. The purpose of bail is not to punish for an alleged, but to ensure a person shows up for court. Of course, the more serious the crime, the more likely one might flee and thus bail with a serious felony would be higher for that reason.) But he's also right in pointing out the FTAs (failure to appear) in other states. That's huge evidence of a flight risk which gives a judge the authority to set a higher than usual bail (for the crime) or deny bail altogether.
If we didn't jail so many non-violent offenders and take up precious court time and resources with those cases would we have to build more jails? I'm not entirely convinced. We have the highest incarceration rate in the developed world. If we were to properly refocus on treatment and diversion for non-violent offenses that could very well provide plenty of room in prisons and the courts to handle actual bad guys. Heck, we may even be able to tear some of these prisons down.
It is an important political point that many places that pride themselves as being "tough on crime" actually underfund their police departments, and many places that conservatives would call "soft on crime" actually spend way more public money on law enforcement.
I write to express support for Charlie Hall. He's right about bail. The purpose of bail is not to punish for an alleged, but to ensure a person shows up for court. Of course, the more serious the crime, the more likely one might flee and thus bail with a serious felony would be higher for that reason.) But he's also right in pointing out the FTAs (failure to appear) in other states. That's huge evidence of a flight risk which gives a judge the authority to set a higher than usual bail (for the crime) or deny bail altogether.
Great post.
If we didn't jail so many non-violent offenders and take up precious court time and resources with those cases would we have to build more jails? I'm not entirely convinced. We have the highest incarceration rate in the developed world. If we were to properly refocus on treatment and diversion for non-violent offenses that could very well provide plenty of room in prisons and the courts to handle actual bad guys. Heck, we may even be able to tear some of these prisons down.