Is it just me, or should bail be eliminated?

So many times I will watch a UM segment to find that the murderer or rapist or whatever got caught, only to come up with the bail money and flee the area. This just doesn't seem right to me. It's suggesting that if a person has enough money, they can buy anything. I'm suprised it hasn't encouraged more rich people to commit crimes by suggesting they have enough money to get away with it.

any thoughts?

As I understand, the government makes money from bail. And yes I scratch my head time and time again when I hear stories of criminals released of bail and either re-offend or disappear. Duh, of course they are gonna disappear...

As I understand, the government makes money from bail. And yes I scratch my head time and time again when I hear stories of criminals released of bail and either re-offend or disappear. Duh, of course they are gonna disappear...

I don't get it either. It's almost like they are asking them to disappear or even re-offend.

I think bail is an important part of the judicial system. But its not perfect.

Some people are charged with crimes they are not guilty of and in my opinion deserve the opportunity to stay out of jail until there trial. Bail gives them this chance.

But the problem I have with bail is twofold. Firstly, sometimes people who are not deserving, in other words there is overwhelming evidence against them, are allowed to post. They subsequently, as you pointed out wiseguy182, skip town and are never seen again. This is just not right.

The other problem I have with bail is it does favors people with money. Lets say a wealthy guy gets charged with murder, his bail is set at a million bucks which he easily posts, and he gets to go home. Is this fair? What about a guy thats poor, that is not considered a flight risk and according to the evidence maybe innocent. Why should he have to sit in a lousy jail cell while his wealthy counterpart is resting comfortably at home? It just doesnt make sense to me.

Anyways, those are my thoughts.
Christopher

Another one I hate is whenever the criminal or criminals are imprisoned, but are given work at an unsupervised part of the outdoor prison grounds.:rolleyes: You can pretty much guess what's going to happen.

Never forget that in Canada or America that we operate under the presumption of "Innocent till Proven Gulity." If a judge feels a person is really dangerous or what not, they will not get bail in most cases and if a person is innocent of the charges against them, why would they run? It just makes them look guilty!

Yeah, I agree with all that you wrote, Christopher. I think the justice system has many flaws in it in the way that the criminals are treated and the way that the victims are treated. There needs to be a balance to it, but there doesn't seem to be. In most cases, the conditions in jail are worse than prison and there is supposed to be this notion of "innocent until proven guilty", but if you are poor, then you are stuck in jail until sentencing, which isn't fair to the innocent. I think if we were more lenient to minor drug offenders and did away with this war on drugs (that will never end, the way that it's going), we could keep the violent offenders off the street and wouldn't have to release them early because of overcrowding.