Determining flight risk and danger to the community are more equitable ways to evaluate those charged with crimes than Minnesota's current cash bail system, Denise Johnson writes. Above, a bail bond office in San Francisco, Aug. 28, 2018. (JIM WILSON/The New York Times)

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In one case, a person accused of a lower-level drug offense has the opportunity to get out by paying a $15,000 bail. But he doesn’t have the money and can’t get it through a bail bondsman, so he may sit in jail for weeks waiting for a court appearance.

Another defendant is charged with a violent sexual assault and can make the $250,000 bail a court assigns. He goes free for the time it takes to set up his trial.

Those are examples of different amounts of pretrial jail time defendants might serve — all based solely on their ability to raise the money for bail.

That’s the way Minnesota’s pretrial system works; state law guarantees that everyone has a right to bail, an amount they can pay for pretrial release if they are not released on their own recognizance. That means the law favors those able to pay bail or a bail bond company.

And that’s why the Legislature should adopt reforms that move the state out of the unfair cash bail system.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, who provided the case examples mentioned at the start of this column, has long supported moving away from the cash bail system. He rightly supports a recent comprehensive report to the Legislature that recommends eliminating cash bail and replacing it with a system that is not based on access to wealth.

In 2023, lawmakers asked the Minnesota Justice Research Center (MNJRC), a nonpartisan criminal justice reform nonprofit, to conduct the study. The results of the center’s assessment were released last week and outlined in a recent commentary.

The assessment found that 56% of people in Minnesota jails are being held there pretrial; their cases have not yet been dismissed or pleaded or decided by a jury. Indigenous and Black people are overrepresented in jail populations, and greater Minnesota has higher rates of pretrial detention. Many remain in detention because they can’t afford to get out.

Ramsey County lists cash bail reform among its legislative priorities for this year to “eliminate the harm caused to the community by the current system” by allowing the use of a more deliberate detention process. Choi said that determining things about flight risk and danger to the community are better, more equitable ways to evaluate those charged than by placing a dollar amount on a get-out-of-jail card.

When someone cannot make bail, they cannot go to work or support their families. Cash bail has harmful effects not only on the defendant but on the community as well, Choi said. Loved ones often raise funds they cannot afford by putting up their houses, cars, etc., to pay for bail. And there can be a predatory lending component to some of the way bail bonds are structured.

The states of New Jersey and Illinois ended cash bail with mostly positive results.

“Everyone should be able to see the inherent unfairness of pretrial ability to get out of jail based on money,” Choi said. “But that’s been the American way since our court system was established … . We need a new, more equitable American way” to handle pretrial detention.