{"id":403225,"date":"2019-04-16T21:07:21","date_gmt":"2019-04-16T20:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/cash-bail-system-drives-mass-incarceration-of-the-poor-lawsuit-against-detroit-rt-usa-news\/"},"modified":"2019-04-16T21:07:21","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T20:07:21","slug":"cash-bail-system-drives-mass-incarceration-of-the-poor-lawsuit-against-detroit-rt-usa-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/cash-bail-system-drives-mass-incarceration-of-the-poor-lawsuit-against-detroit-rt-usa-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Cash bail system drives mass incarceration of the poor \u2013 lawsuit against Detroit \u2014 RT USA News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Detroit\u2019s bail system disproportionately harms poor defendants and violates their constitutional rights, according to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU in that city, where a third of the population lives below the poverty line. <\/p>\n

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The local branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the class-action suit on Sunday, claiming the bail process in Detroit\u2019s 36th District Court \u201cpunishes<\/em>\u201d the poor and needs immediate reform.<\/p>\n

\u201cA person\u2019s freedom should not depend on how much money they have,<\/em>\u201d deputy legal director for the ACLU of Michigan, Dan Korobkin, said in a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBail was originally intended to ensure a person returns to court to face charges against them,<\/em>\u201d Korobkin said. \u201cBut instead, the money bail system has morphed into mass incarceration of the poor. It punishes people not for what they\u2019ve done but because of what they don\u2019t have.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

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The lawsuit, filed on behalf of eight plaintiffs, describes a \u201ctwo-tiered<\/em>\u201d court system, for rich and poor, where a defendant\u2019s legal rights depend on his or her ability to shell out cash.<\/p>\n

All eight plaintiffs are African-American and, because African-Americans are five times<\/a> more likely to be detained than their white counterparts, the bail system has a disproportionate impact on that community. The most recent census data reveals that over one third<\/a> of Detroit\u2019s residents live under the poverty line.<\/p>\n

Michigan court rules mandate \u201cmeaningful inquiry<\/em>\u201d into an arrestee\u2019s ability to pay, and that cash bail should only be ordered in exceptional circumstances, such as when a defendant is a flight risk, or a danger to the community. \u00a0The ACLU says the 36th District Court consistently violates those rules.<\/p>\n

In hundreds of cases, defendants were rushed through the arraignment process\u2014done through video teleconference\u2014in just minutes, while magistrates routinely set bail without asking about the defendant\u2019s ability to pay. Cash bail was ordered in 85 percent of cases observed by the ACLU.<\/p>\n

One of the suit\u2019s plaintiffs was arrested for a five-year-old misdemeanor ticket and was unable to afford the $200 bail. He spent two weeks in jail waiting for his hearing, unable to purchase his freedom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It costs around $165 per night to detain somebody in Wayne County\u2019s jail, which holds approximately 1,600 prisoners<\/a> on any given day. Sixty-two percent of those inmates await trial. That puts taxpayers on the hook for nearly $60 million dollars annually to cover room and board for the pretrial prisoners alone. Detroit is located in Wayne County.<\/p>\n


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In nearly all the cases the ACLU surveyed, the bail proceedings took place before the defendant had legal representation, a violation of defendants\u2019 right to counsel, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

During the proceedings, arrestees are barred from asking questions about their case.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the arrestee seeks to ask a question, the Magistrate Defendants typically interrupt the arrestee with a warning that anything she says can and will be used against her in a court of law.<\/em>\u201d the ACLU said in the suit. \u201cIn issuing such a warning, the Magistrate Defendants typically do not first inquire whether the individual\u2019s question pertains to the underlying criminal allegations or to the court\u2019s bail determination.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

The ACLU has taken on similar cases elsewhere in the country, such as the suit filed in March against Philadelphia courts<\/a>. The legal watchdog says the court\u2019s magistrates are indifferent to the poverty of arrestees. Like Detroit\u2019s system, the courts in Philly typically spend fewer than three minutes on each defendant, dispensing hasty judgements on an industrial scale.<\/p>\n


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A 2017 ACLU report<\/a> found that for-profit bail companies were making billions off of poor defendants caught up in the legal system. The companies offer loans to cover the cost of bail, but leave the arrestees over their heads in debt. The report also found that nearly 70 percent of people in American jails have not been convicted of a crime, many awaiting trial.<\/p>\n

Defendants named in Sunday\u2019s suit include the District Court\u2019s chief judge, Nancy Blount, as well as Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon and five magistrates who handle bail arraignments..<\/p>\n

The 36th District Court is the largest in Michigan.<\/p>\n

Like this story? Share it with a friend!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Detroit\u2019s bail system disproportionately harms poor defendants and violates their constitutional rights, according to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU in that city, where a third of the population lives below the poverty line. The local branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the class-action suit on Sunday, claiming the bail process in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":403226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-403225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}