ABSTRACT
Bail or pretrial release is a principal component of criminal justice systems throughout the world. Established to ensure one’s appearance at trial, bail has morphed into a system, particularly in the United States, where the poor and disenfranchised are detained before trial as they cannot afford bail. This chapter discusses America’s reliance on cash bail that has resulted in the mass incarceration of mostly low-income people of color in local jails. More people than ever before are serving pretrial detention and being held in jails without being convicted of any crime. Given this, states are reassessing their use of cash bail and implementing alternatives in order to reduce the mass incarceration of non-convicted people.
