Alison Siegler and Jaden Lessnick, ’23: ‘We Found Judges Jailing People on Unmeetable Bail Bonds’

Freedom Denied Part 5: Judges Must Stop Unlawfully Jailing People for Poverty Through Excessive Financial Conditions

In our last four posts, we have described how our Federal Criminal Justice Clinic's Freedom Denied report reveals a culture of detention, with federal judges routinely violating the Bail Reform Act that they are tasked with upholding.

This post addresses the last of our four findings and recommendations: "Judges must stop unlawfully jailing people for poverty through excessive financial conditions."

The Bail Reform Act unequivocally prohibits judges from jailing people who are too poor to pay for their release: "The judicial officer may not impose a financial condition that results in the pretrial detention of the person." 18 U.S.C. § 3142(c)(2).

Read more at The Volokh Conspiracy