Nearly half of the nation's 67,000 jail inmates in September were being detained pretrial because they were either not granted bail, or couldn't come up with the money. The system of deciding who gets bail is admittedly imperfect—but it also costs US taxpayers about $9 billion a year, and the collateral damage to defendants and their families is huge.
Jordan Smith, a 2012 John Jay/Public Welfare Foundation Reporting Fellow, takes a long look at how the system plays out in Travis County, Texas. Read her report HERE.