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Bail reform addresses overpopulation and potential injustices

There are a lot of new jails in western North Dakota, to address overpopulation. Williams, Burleigh-Morton, McKenzie, Mountrail, and now Ward County have built new facilities in the last few years alone. However, these jails aren’t just holding convicted prisoners – they’re also holding people who can’t make bail. In fact, on Monday this week, only one-fourth of the 85 inmates in the Ward County Jail were actually sentenced to be there. Almost 60% of the inmates were there only because they couldn’t post bail.

A lot are faced with an impossible choice: maintain innocence and stay in jail because they can’t make bail, or plead guilty and go home. The sole purpose of bail is to serve as collateral for someone’s appearance in court. And in our state, the law requires unconditional release (like a Personal Recognizance or Appearance Bond) unless this will not reasonably assure someone’s appearance in court. Yet, even for first-time arrestees, courts routinely require surety bonds, essentially requiring the person to pay a private bondsman a 10%-15% fee to stand as surety for their appearance.

Sometimes, the court orders a percentage bond payable to the court, but that still means coming up with hundreds of dollars on the spot, which can result in days or weeks away from home and work. And even when someone makes bail, courts can impose restrictions on travel, employment, medical evaluations, and participation in costly sobriety programs, before any adjudication that they are guilty.

Practically, guilty pleas are necessary. Between District Court and Municipal Court, Minot saw over 4800 separate cases last year, an average of more than 13 per day. Judges and attorneys are fully aware that the courts cannot possibly schedule all of them for trial. Without guilty pleas, our courts would self-destruct. But in Minot, less than 1 in 5 cases is a felony, and fewer are violent felonies. With many first-time and low-level offenders not being sentenced to jail, why should we require a person to sit in jail simply because they can’t post bond?

A reformation of the bail process would ensure a lower jail population, a smoother operation of justice, and a lower negative impact on people’s lives. This could include a number of streamlining measures, like presumed unconditional release or appearance bonds for misdemeanors and presumptive-probation felonies, and the creation of a small department for Pretrial Services for reporting and monitoring.

Regardless of what the bail process is designed to be, its two practical effects are inducement of guilty pleas and increasing the jail population. In our America, and in our North Dakota, a guilty plea should result from the merits of a case, and the jail population should consist primarily of sentenced offenders. A defendant’s financial resources should not be the chief factor in the outcome of our criminal justice process.

Andrew J. Schultz is the owner and operator of Worthington & Schultz, P.C., a criminal defense and debt collection law firm in Minot. He can be reached at 701-852-5513.

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