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Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of IHeartRadio.

Hey, Brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and this is a classic episode from our archives.

Today's question has to do with one of the many aspects of criminal justice reform that's

being discussed more seriously as of late. Is there a better alternative to cash bail?

Hey, Brainstuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here. If you're arrested in most cities and towns in America,

you'll be fingerprinted, booked, and tossed in a jail cell until the judge sets your bail.

Technically, bail means any kind of conditional release from custody

between your arrest and your actual trial date. But in most cases, bail means money. Cash

bail is one of the oldest ways of ensuring that the accused person shows up for trial. Dating back

to the medieval Anglo-Saxons, cash bail allows a defendant to be released from jail

before trial by giving the court cash or collateral. The money or property is returned to

the defendant if and only if they show up to court. Today, most cash bails aren't paid directly

by the defendant, but by a third-party bail bonds agent, also known as a surety bondsman. That's because the cash bail

schedules used by most judges, X crime equals X dollars in bail, don't factor in a person's

ability to pay. For example, if you were to look at the 2018 bail schedule for Orange County,

...