Unable to Post Bail? You Will Pay for That for Many Years

A separate study in the Quarterly Journal of Economics showed that while the cash-bail system penalizes poor people, it also discriminates against African-Americans, who tend to be treated more severely than white people by judges who set bail, regardless of the judge’s race. By subjecting judicial bail-setting decisions to statistical analysis, the first study found that some judges tended to be stricter in their bail rulings, and some more lenient. In most court cases, judges, whether lenient or strict, made the same decision as their peers, the study found.

Source: www.nytimes.com