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> I believe our system has flaws that need correcting, but I do not advocate destroying the system to fix them.

“It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.“ - Justice Blackstone

I don’t understand why and how we got so far away from the idea that state punishment is the last resort, instead making it the first. Especially in the States, we do so many things that, even in the moment we are doing them, seem needlessly cruel yet justify them as “but what happens if one bad person continues to be bad and we miss the chance to smack them hard??”

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Suffering is on a scale. Its better that a few innocent people sit around for a few days than one guilty person getting out and killing someone.

The risks should be evaluated and the result being keeping innocent people waiting for as little as possible while also preventing criminals from getting away.

>Suffering is on a scale. Its better that a few innocent people sit around for a few days than one guilty person getting out and killing someone.

Firstly, pretrial detention averages 50-200 days, with some sitting in jail for years without trial. Secondly, the vast majority of those in pretrial detention are there for non-violent crimes. Thirdly, about 60% of the population of jails in the US are in pretrial detention.[0]

Remember, these are people who have not been convicted of any crime.

Calculate how long could you keep your job, your house and/or custody of your children if you were sitting in jail? Two months? Six? A year?

After you do that, consider that a large segment of Americans would have a hard time scraping up $400 for any sort of emergency -- especially if they can't work because they're in jail.

If there is a genuine flight risk (much more likely for those who can afford bail) or evidence that the accused may be a danger to the community, they should be held until trial without the opportunity to be released. But only if there is actual evidence that this is so.

Otherwise, you're essentially criminalizing poverty.

[0] https://www.pretrial.org/get-involved/learn-more/why-we-need...

Edit: Reorganized for clarity.

> Its better that a few innocent people sit around for a few days than one guilty person getting out and killing someone.

A suspect jailed and awaiting trial for murder would likely not have bail as an option. Eliminating cash bail doesn't mean eliminating the ability to hold people who are an extreme flight risk or who are likely a danger to others.

"Sit around for a few days" has more consequences than your dismissive attitude implies. Many people who land in jail like this will lose their job if they "sit around for a few days". If they're people who are already living on the margins of society, it's pretty likely that losing their job might, just might, make them turn to crime to make ends meet, even if they hadn't committed one in the first place.

> Its better that a few innocent people sit around for a few days than one guilty person getting out and killing someone.

Considering the comparatively tiny number of murders committed in such a way that an individual determination of the denial of any bail cannot be made, relative to the massive impact of just leaving “a few innocent people” in jail for “a few days”, I disagree.

For the people most likely to not be bailed out almost immediately—as in, people who have the fewest resources—sitting in jail for a few days can be (and usually is, hence the point of this article) absolutely catastrophic. Life-ruining, all out of the fear that one person might slip through the cracks.

That’s unacceptable. We can do better.

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