Image retrieved From -https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/incomejails.html
Image retrieved From -https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/incomejails.htmlI was watching a T.V. that followed around people in jail. From participating in this course, I got to thinking about the systemic injustices that lie in our criminal justice system. I believe there are a lot. One of these would be the money bail system that we currently have in play. The money bail system is where someone gets arrested and they are given the option to either stay in jail or pay a payment so they can be released until their court date. Once they show up to the court date they get their money refunded. However, there are a lot of problems and injustices in this. First of all the presumption of innocence (where people are considered innocent until proven guilty) is completely thrown out. If you are falsely accused and could not afford bail, you would be stuck in jail until your court date. Bernadette Rabuy and Daniel Kopf in their article named Detailing the Poor stated that “34% of defendants were detained pretrial for the inability to post money bail.” This means out of 100 people charged and booked for a crime, 34 of them were offered bail and could not afford it. Innocent people sitting in jail because they cannot afford bail is definitely a problem. This is highly impactful to the lower class people who do not have a lot of money. Why is it right that a person with more money can get out of jail and a poorer person can’t? It simply is not. Upper class people are given a major advantage just for having money in their pocket. This system can be related to the theoretical work of othering we have learned in class. The system sets upper class people up as the one and lower class people as the other. All based on how much money the person has. Justice should not have a monetary value. In order for this wrong to be righted a new system must be put into play, a system that does not focus on social classes to decide if you can or cannot stay in jail. This reformed system must focus on equality among all people and fairness in the trial process. There are two articles linked below that help understand the injustices that lie in the money bail system. If you have the time, check them out!
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/incomejails.html
https://talkpoverty.org/2016/04/27/the-many-injustices-of-the-money-bail-system/