This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, November 19th, 2018.

I'm Caleb Brown.

How State Run Bail Systems Function is somewhat divorced

from the risks posed by defendants before trial.

Daniel Due of the Buckeye Institute sat down with me at the State Policy Network annual meeting in Salt Lake City

to discuss potential reforms to this system,

so low-income Americans aren't unduly punished

when they pose no risk to the public.

As of this recording,

a friend in Jefferson County, Kentucky.

She and I were college roommates.

She's running for judge.

And the point that she makes to me is, you know, if somebody is a threat of flight or further

potential criminal activity, they are that whatever the bail is that you might set for them and for various

various reasons people who cannot afford a thousand dollars

definitely can't afford ten thousand dollars some people can't afford

five hundred dollars for bail so how do you think about the issue of bail pending trial?

Yeah, that's absolutely right. I mean, the amount of money that you deposit with a court or the bail bond agent that has no effect on the safety

risk you are to the community.

And so when we're looking at pretrial detention, what we really need to look at is if this person is a danger to the community or we think that there's a reasonable possibility.

First, we should look at are there things other than incarceration.

This person still has the presumption of innocence.

...