Bail

Hilarious story: we had to bail out a friend arrested in GA and the bondsman wouldn't bail him out unless we had somebody local to sign for him so we paid a crackhead* $100 to say he'd gone to college with our friend and sign the bond on his behalf. Later the friend** skipped out on his court date. :/

*I am not using that term casually.
**I am using the term "friend" casually.

The look on the bondsman's face when the local dude said he was our friend's college buddy was pretty much the definition of skepticism.

GA is an arrest-y state

a good, quick intro to bail and bail funds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5w75eGTnag

one thought i have afterward is how much bail money is in the system, at any given point? would it be possible to create a revolving bail fund that was large enough, and had enough liquidity, to cover everyone in the country? that seems like it would be a rather large amount of money, but it also seems like there are quite a few people with even larger amounts of money.

but it must not be so simple, because otherwise wouldn't some billionaire just single-handedly fund the revolving bail fund? if i understand the idea correctly, the fund wouldn't need to grow every year - it just needs to be large enough to work as a revolving fund for all the active cases. or not?

Illinois just became the first state to end cash bail.

“Pretrial Fairness Act,” which ends cash bail among other things, passes the House on a vote of 60 to 50
Win for the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, though it seemed dicey there for a minute as 59 votes held. Members and staff embrace after passage. pic.twitter.com/gr1NO3DSRY

— Hannah Meisel (@hannahmeisel) January 13, 2021