Four Ways Cities Can Make Jails Fairer to the Poor—and Save Money

[eridani]

http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/05/13/cash-bail-hurting-poor-americans-heres-how-fix-it?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-05-13

When Miguel Padilla landed in jail for driving with a suspended license, his fiancée scrambled to raise $1,000 cash bail to get him out of New York City’s Rikers Island. They couldn’t come up with the cash. So the 35-year-old decided to plead guilty, rather than fight his case, to get back to his three kids as fast as possible. In the five days Padilla spent behind bars, he lost both of his low-wage jobs. After his release, Padilla struggled to find another job—thanks to his new criminal record.

Padilla and people across the country are often moved to plead guilty, mainly because they can’t afford bail and are desperate to get back to their lives. “When you’re in jail on bail, you’re far more likely to plead guilty—and to worse sentences—whether you’re innocent or not,” Scott Hechinger, a public defender in Brooklyn, New York, told TakePart. Nearly 90 percent of Hechinger’s clients who are charged with misdemeanors can’t afford bail that’s been set at $1,000 or less.

Locking people up because they’re broke doesn’t just take a toll on their lives. Taxpayers’ wallets are hit hard too: in New York City where Padilla was incarcerated, for example, one study found the city spent almost $170,000 per year for every jail inmate. So keeping people out of jail—even for just a few days—can save cities big bucks. “If you care about fiscal responsibility, bail just doesn’t makes sense,” said Hechinger, an attorney at Brooklyn Defenders Services, which represents nearly half of all people arrested in Brooklyn.

[surrealAmerican]

1. k & r

It's an important issue.

[whatthehey]

2. I'm fine with the concept, but this kind of fantasy CBA always irks me

The "170K per prisoner" averages all costs of the prison system, from buildings to utilities to admin and everything else, divided by the number of prisoner days. Having 1 prisoner less saves you essentially zero (they are hardly likely to vary industrial level food orders based on individual head count, although significant shifts may eventually affect that first). No less to light, heat, etc. No fewer guards, janitors, accountants, etc. Reducing prisoners below a level which would allow them to, say, close a facility or at least a block or wing entirely would actually put the cost per prisoner UP as you would be using a smaller denominator for the same fixed costs. It certainly wouldn't save "big bucks" for anybody.

[eridani]

3. It would certainly make building new prisons unnecessary for quite a long time n/t