JAIL: Here's the tale behind bail

Al Underwood, in his June 14 letter to The Press, expresses his frustration at “law enforcement people” allowing suspects to be released on bond. He bases his complaint about criminal suspects in a pending case being released on bond (bail) on some common misinformation.

With a few rare exceptions, both felony and misdemeanor arrestees are entitled to be released on bail, pending their trial. The basis for this policy is that the U.S. Constitution deems those arrested are innocent until proven guilty. In most western states, this is how the bail system works: again, with a few exceptions, those arrested for misdemeanor crimes (less serious offences for which no state prison sentence can be given) can either be transported to the jail for booking, or, at the discretion of the arresting officer, the suspect can be released in the field on a “notice to appear,” which is similar to a traffic citation, provided the arrestee has valid identification and no outstanding warrants. With rare exception, all felony (serious crimes for which a state prison sentence may be given) suspects are booked at the jail.

In most jurisdictions, a panel of judges establishes a “bail schedule” that is distributed to local law enforcement agencies, so that bail can be uniformly applied. The judges set an amount of bail for each misdemeanor and felony crime. Bail amounts vary depending on the specific crime. Law enforcement has no say in setting bail.

Although police across the county have been accused with a litany of malfeasance lately, Mr. Underwood is incorrect in blaming “law enforcement” for criminal suspects being released on bail or bond. Indeed, I imagine that the officers and/or detectives who spent days or weeks on the investigation leading to the arrests of these vandalism suspects share your frustration of a low bond amount and the likely possibility that the suspects’ friends or family could post as little as $500 with a bail bondsman to secure their release from jail. In this case, however, the police did nothing wrong.

JERRY ROSE

Hayden