Bail And Preventive Detention Research Paper

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Courts: Bail and Preventive Detention La Salle University “A man of courage never needs weapons, but he may need bail.” (Lewis Mumford). Bail is a guarantee that has the judge that defendant will appear the day of the trial. Bail amounts vary depending on the state or county, each state or county have a bail schedule. When bail amount is excessive defendants can’t pay it and have to wait in jail for trial. When the judge denies bail defendants stay in preventive detention waiting for trial. The proposed legislation would increase bail amounts for defendants waiting for trial and subsequently the number of people who are detained for long periods of time pretrial. If the legislation proposes to increase bail amount it would violate one…show more content…
Most of the time offender has to wait long time in jail waiting for the trial. “Excessive pretrial detention shatters individual lives, destroys families and degrades communities” (Berry, 2011:16). The people who are released from prisons are unlikely to find good job and are exposed to live in poverty. In addition, if a former inmate finds a job is very rarely because the background of a person is very important when people wants to find a good job with good wages. It’s very hard for people who is released from jail to improve in life because of the difficultness in finding a job. The levels of poverty thus increase. Also, after release it is more likely for them to face unemployment and more economic problems. The Pew article is stressed on statistics on the economy of former inmates. According to the Pew's Economic Policy group and the Pew Center, on the States shows that after release, former male inmates work nine fewer weeks annually and takes home 40 percent less in annual earnings, making $23,500 instead of $39,100. That amounts to an expected earnings loss of nearly $179,000 through age 48 for men who have been incarcerated (Lasky, 2010). If society helps former inmates to find job or to finish high school maybe they can get ahead and avoid going to jail again. Excessive pretrial…show more content…
It is a bad idea if they decide to increase bail amount. This because more people would have to wait in jail for a trial. Also, they would be violating some of the constitutionals rights, such as The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which provides that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Everyone has the right to defend themselves, because anybody can punish you for something that you haven’t done. The legislation should not increase bail because The Eight Amendment of the U.S Constitution prohibits the excessive amount, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishment. If they increase bail amount defendants are going to be unable to pay the amount and for that reason there will be more persons awaiting for trial in preventive detention. If more persons are in jail, the costs of prisoner increase and so does the cost of maintenance of prison for the government. All the money that the government uses to maintenance the prisons come from the taxes that the people pay every year, and if the number of prisoner increases the more taxes we have to pay. For all those reason the proposed legislation is the worst idea, not only for the defendants, but also for society as a

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