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Give Me Liberty Or Give Me . . . Alternatives?: Ending Cash Bail And Its Impact On Pretrial Incarceration, Muhammad B. Sardar

Brooklyn Law Review

Every day in the United States, thousands of pretrial defendants are imprisoned due to their inability to afford bail. These individuals have not been convicted of an offense, yet are incarcerated for the crime of being poor. Pretrial incarceration wreaks havoc both on the individual detainee and society at large. Pretrial detainees are more likely to plead guilty, receive higher sentences, and face grave future economic prospects. The cash bail system in particular disproportionately affects racial minorities, furthering the already racially disparate outcomes inherent in the U.S. criminal justice system. From a societal perspective, the increased rate of incarceration due …