The Bail Book

Examines the causes for mass incarceration of Americans and calls for the reform of the bail system. Traces the history of bail, how it has come to be an oppressive tool of the courts, and makes recommendations for reforming the bail system and alleviating the mass incarceration problem.

Mass incarceration is one of the greatest social problems facing the United States today. America incarcerates a greater percentage of its population than any other country and is one of only two countries that requires arrested individuals to pay bail to be released from jail while awaiting trial. After arrest, the bail decision is the single most important cause of mass incarceration, yet this decision is often neglected since it is made in less than two minutes. Shima Baradaran Baughman draws on constitutional rights and new empirical research to show how we can reform bail in America. Tracing the history of bail, she demonstrates how it has become an oppressive tool of the courts that disadvantages minority and poor defendants and shows how we can reform bail to alleviate mass incarceration. By implementing these reforms, she argues, we can restore constitutional rights and release more defendants, while lowering crime rates.

Most people in jail have not been convicted of a crime. Instead, they have been accused of a crime and cannot afford to post the bail amount to guarantee their freedom until trial. Punishing Poverty examines how the current system of pretrial release detains hundreds of thousands of defendants awaiting trial. Tracing the historical antecedents of the US bail system, with particular attention to the failures of bail reform efforts in the mid to late twentieth century, the authors describe the painful social and economic impact of contemporary bail decisions. The first book-length treatment to analyze how bail reproduces racial and economic inequality throughout the criminal justice system, Punishing Poverty explores reform efforts, as jurisdictions begin to move away from money bail systems, and the attempts of the bail bond industry to push back against such reforms. This accessibly written book gives a succinct overview of the role of pretrial detention in fueling mass incarceration and is essential reading for researchers and reformers alike.

Financial stability is a pillar of well-functioning financial markets. After the last financial crisis, European policymakers harmonised banking regulation and revised the framework of banking resolution. The introduction of the bail-in legislation is a natural experiment to improve the understanding of banking resolution and how it affected the funding strategies of banks. This book assesses whether financial stability has been strengthened by the change in banks’ resolution policy with a focus on the bail-in. The book shows how banks changed their funding strategies, shrank their balance-sheets and relied more on deposits. The book will discuss inter-alia the mis-selling of bonds, which happened during 2012-2013, analysing whether the bond allocation changed after the bail-in launch. It discusses how the bail-in mechanism was deemed credible by equity holders and argues that the European case would have useful implications for third countries. Finally, the book relates this discussion to the possible collateral effects generated by the new resolution policy during and after the COVID-19 crisis, which will be of particular interest to researchers and policymakers in banking and financial institutions. ​

When people are arrested and taken into custody, they become involved in a process to determine whether they will go home or stay in jail until the criminal charges can be brought to trial. Depending on the charges, this can take months -- and sometimes years. In the meantime, the accused will either remain in a custodial institution (with few amenities), or be released into the community (sometimes with strict conditions). The fate of the accused during this critical period of time is governed by the law of bail. Bail engages a dramatic conflict between individual freedom and society's right to protect itself. While the conflict is straightforward and easy to understand, the same is not true of Canadian bail law. In this book, Justice Gary T Trotter, a former prosecutor and law professor, provides a straightforward account of this bewilderingly complex area of the law. In a highly readable style, Trotter draws a straight line through this legal morass, making it accessible to the legal profession and beyond.

A revealing look at how user behavior is powering deep social divisions online—and how we might yet defeat political tribalism on social media In an era of increasing social isolation, platforms like Facebook and Twitter are among the most important tools we have to understand each other. We use social media as a mirror to decipher our place in society but, as Chris Bail explains, it functions more like a prism that distorts our identities, empowers status-seeking extremists, and renders moderates all but invisible. Breaking the Social Media Prism challenges common myths about echo chambers, foreign misinformation campaigns, and radicalizing algorithms, revealing that the solution to political tribalism lies deep inside ourselves. Drawing on innovative online experiments and in-depth interviews with social media users from across the political spectrum, this book explains why stepping outside of our echo chambers can make us more polarized, not less. Bail takes you inside the minds of online extremists through vivid narratives that trace their lives on the platforms and off—detailing how they dominate public discourse at the expense of the moderate majority. Wherever you stand on the spectrum of user behavior and political opinion, he offers fresh solutions to counter political tribalism from the bottom up and the top down. He introduces new apps and bots to help readers avoid misperceptions and engage in better conversations with the other side. Finally, he explores what the virtual public square might look like if we could hit "reset" and redesign social media from scratch through a first-of-its-kind experiment on a new social media platform built for scientific research. Providing data-driven recommendations for strengthening our social media connections, Breaking the Social Media Prism shows how to combat online polarization without deleting our accounts.

"This is a practical guide to conducting bail hearings in Canada, written by an experienced Provincial court judge."--

This book is a work of fiction. However, this is based on a person's real experience in Rikers Island jail on the onset of the pandemic which is narrated by a protagonist named Himalman Copchay. This novel will illuminate the police and prosecutorial behavior in general and the person's subjective experience about the judge, ADA , the lawyers and the correctional personnel behavior during the pandemic. The inmate population of Rikers Island in April 2020 was like a large chicken farm where the chicken died by unknown flu. There was no way out and everyone was terrified. At this fretful time how the justice apparatus acted. Did the judge, ADA and the lawyers show mercy to the defendant? It was the middle of May and the pandemic was booming. There were no more court dates for detainees to appear in court and they hadn't started the video court scheduling either. With no court dates and no appearance in person at court, the danger of practicing obscurantism by the officials became higher leading them to have unilateral freedom to abuse it. The detainees could endlessly be incarcerated attributing everything outright to the pandemic. Among other allegations the ADA has charged Copchay that he had created and carried a fraudulent Green Card. Which was absolutely not true. Copchay's judge during these dystopian pandemic hours issued a unilateral decision, with no presence of an attorney, validating the police statement that Copchay's Green Card in fact was fraudulent. One can imagine how merciless this act was. Copchay's paid attorney, on the other hand, instead of filing an application to lower the bail and getting him out of jail, engaged in pressuring Copchay to accept a guilty plea. One can imagine how merciless this act was. After six months of suspension, on his first video court date from Rikers Island he confronted the judge, prosecutor and his own attorney. He asked the judge passionately to release him. The judge vehemently rejected saying "we are not going to release you". All the players at court were forcing him to accept the guilty plea while he was saying that he never committed the alleged crimes. Forcing defendant to plea deal makes everyone's job easier and they can stay at ease. The defense lawyer doesn't have to study for facts and law in the case and he doesn't have to labor for his client. The judge doesn't have to go through the hassle of organizing a trial and the prosecutor would add to their chart to be successful. No-one has to study or do effort to determine the truth. the defendant is the one who will carry the taboo for the rest of his life. Who cares? The justice system has been taken over by plea bargaining. Initially, the concept of Plea Bargaining was only for those who were truly guilty based on evidence. It has to be obvious without ambiguity about the criminal mind of the accused. Actus Reus is not enough to determine guilt, Mens Rea must concur with it. They say the trial is very expensive. What is cheaper is plea bargaining. At whose cost? Obviously at the cost of the defendant. There are hardcore criminals out there that is true and the justice system should take care of them, but 96% plea deal out of court room comprises a lot of innocents that is also true. Eventually, all parties acknowledged after a year in jail that Copchay's Green Card was genuine. They couldn't keep Copchay for more than a year for misdemeanor in jail. The judge reluctantly let him go, issuing five thousand bail. The case will not end here, it will continue. In addition to above mentioned facts, this novel will give a detailed picture of the inmate's everyday life. Jail food, healthcare, recreation, conflict, jail staff behavior, and several other components associated with jail life. This novel is keenly researched and documented.