It’s hard to overstate what a big deal this is. We just took a major step toward ending the predatory system of cash bail in West Virginia.
House Bill 2419 has now passed both houses of the Legislature and heads to the governor’s office for signature. It creates a presumption that a person will be released without having to post bail for certain non-violent classes of crimes. For all other crimes, judges and magistrates are required to use the "least restrictive" means for ensuring people appear in court. This should result in fewer people going to jail while awaiting trial.
All to often, after an arrest — wrongful or not — an accused person’s ability to leave jail and return home to fight the charges depends on money. That's because, in most states, people are required to pay cash bail.
Originally, bail was supposed to make sure people return to court to face charges. But over time, the system has morphed into widespread wealth-based incarceration. Jail populations and average stays have ballooned over the past three decades.
Poorer Americans often can't afford to come up with money for bail, leaving them stuck in jail awaiting trial, sometimes for months or years. Wealthy people accused of the same crime? They can buy their freedom and return home.
Bail is regularly set at levels that are far too high for many people or their families to pay. Defendants face an impossible choice: sit in jail as the case moves through the system; pay a nonrefundable fee to a for-profit bail bonds company; or plead guilty and give up the right to defend themselves at trial.
Thank you to all of our partners in this fight, including American Friends Service Committee, Americans for Prosperity, WV Center on Budget and Policy, WV Council of Churches, and the Cardinal Institute. A future without bail is in sight.