Member-only story
Against Bail: End American Pretrial Detention for Non-Violent Offenders Now.
The original purpose of bail was to insure a defendant’s appearance at trial. That’s not how the system works today.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s, I was a public defender who took cases in the District Courts of Massachusetts. Monday mornings began with bail arguments for people who’d been arrested over the weekend that the Commonwealth wanted to have locked up.
In 1983, I got assigned to represent a guy named Richard who was charged with forging 14 prescriptions for opiates. At that time, junkies sometimes stole prescriptions pads off doctor’s desks and wrote their own tickets, which is why you never see those prescription pads anymore.
Richard had 23 prior arrests and convictions in that court alone, but not a single default on his record. I remember the details of his case so distinctly because he was a former lover of mine, and also because I’d shot heroin with him when I was in law school.
The Commonwealth argued in favor of a high bail because of Richard’s long record. I started out by telling the judge that forging prescriptions was a victimless crime — the pharmacy got paid for those prescriptions, after all. The judge snorted at me. Then I pulled out the…
