Cash bail was never supposed to be a punishment. It was designed as a safeguard: a temporary measure to ensure people returned to court. But in Michigan and across the country, bail has been twisted into a weapon. One that punishes poverty, destabilizes families, and pressures people into guilty pleas whether or not they’ve committed a crime.
Here are 10 signs your community’s bail system is functioning as a weapon, not a safeguard:
1. Bail Amounts That Exceed the Alleged Crime
When a person accused of a misdemeanor gets slapped with a bail higher than someone facing a violent felony, that’s not protection — that’s coercion.
Example: In New York, studies found people charged with low-level offenses often faced bail amounts exceeding their means, leading to unnecessary pretrial detention.
2. Judges Setting “Cookie-Cutter” Bail
If bail hearings last 60 seconds and everyone walks away with the same number regardless of their circumstances, due process is being erased.
Example: Research shows bail hearings in some states average under three minutes, with judges often failing to consider individualized risk.
3. Bail Ignoring Mental Health Needs
When people in crisis are jailed instead of connected to treatment, bail becomes a barrier to healing; a punishment for being unwell.
Example: The Vera Institute has documented how people with mental health issues are disproportionately detained pretrial due to inability to pay bail.
4. Two-Tiered Justice: Who Pays, Who Stays
If people with money bond out within hours while poor people sit for weeks, the system isn’t about public safety and it never was. It is, and always has been, and until something changes, always will be, about wealth.
Example: Nationwide, over 60% of jail inmates are being held pretrial, most simply because they cannot afford bail.
5. Prosecutors Using Bail as Leverage
When prosecutors like Kent County’s Chris Becker push for higher bail and longer restrictions to pressure defendants into guilty pleas, that’s not justice, that’s extortion in a courtroom.
Example: Human Rights Watch found bail is routinely used to extract plea deals, creating “coerced admissions of guilt” rather than fair trials.
6. Excessive Bail for Minor or Nonviolent Charges
If you’re seeing $10,000 bail for petty theft or a probation violation, it’s no longer about ensuring court appearances — it’s about punishment before trial.
Example: The U.S. Supreme Court in Stack v. Boyle (1951) ruled excessive bail unconstitutional…yet modern practice often ignores that principle.
7. No Consideration of Community Ties
When judges ignore that someone has kids, a job, or lifelong roots in the community, bail transforms from a safeguard into exile.
Example: The Bail Project highlights cases where stable community members were still locked up because they couldn’t pay even minimal bail.
8. Bail Hearings Without Evidence
If courts demand bail without any discussion of risk, record, or alternatives, it’s a sign the system is running on autopilot — and people are paying with their freedom.
Example: The ACLU has documented states where bail decisions are made with little to no supporting evidence, creating widespread injustice.
9. Jail Overcrowding Driven by Bail
When your local jail is filled with people who haven’t been convicted, but couldn’t afford bail, it’s a clear indicator: bail has become mass detention by another name.
Example: As of 2022, roughly two-thirds of county jail populations nationwide are pretrial detainees.
10. Bail as Retaliation
In some counties, bail spikes when defendants challenge authority, file complaints, or simply won’t “go along” quietly. That’s not safeguarding justice — it’s weaponizing it.
Example: Investigations have found patterns of judges and prosecutors, in Barry, Berrien, Kent, and Van Buren County using bail strategically against defendants who assert rights or challenge the system, trying to bully them into plea deals.
Why This Matters
Bail isn’t supposed to be a weapon. But when it’s used to punish poverty, silence dissent, and warehouse the most vulnerable, it undermines the very idea of due process. Communities deserve a system that sees people as people.
Not as dollar signs or bargaining chips.
Clutch Justice will continue spotlighting counties and courtrooms where bail has morphed into punishment, and where freedom is only available for sale.
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