The Bail Trap: A Scandal at the Heart of American Justice

From the renowned founder of The Bail Project, an eye-opening book about why we allow money to play any role in the administration of justice“When bail is set unreasonably high, people are behind bars only because they are poor. . . . They don’t have money to get out of jail and they certainly don’t have money to flee anywhere.” -Loretta Lynch, former United States Attorney GeneralEvery night in America, nearly half a million people go to sleep in jail cells without having been convicted of a crime.They are there for one reason: they cannot afford to pay the price of their freedom.That price is bail. For those with money, freedom is immediate. For those without it, weeks, months, or even years in jail can follow. Cash bail has created two systems of justice: one for people with wealth and one for people without.It undermines the presumption of innocence, drives overcrowding in jails, fuels racial disparities, and exerts enormous pressure on people to plead guilty, whether they committe