This next Bail Month Fact comes from a study that was conducted in Los Angeles County by the JFA Institute in 2012.  The goal of the study was to examine the jail population within the LA County Jail.  One of the pillars of the public sector pretrial community’s argument against the private sector commercial bail industry is that jail overcrowding is caused by pretrial populations that cannot afford to bail out of jail.  The claim being made is that 70% of those in jail are there in pretrial status and that those people are languishing away because they can’t afford to pay a bail bond agent to gain their release. The commercial bail industry has claimed that people are NOT being held in pretrial status because they can’t afford a bail bond, but rather because the majority of them are not even eligible for bail in the first place. 

In 2012, the JFA Institute conducted a study to delve into these pretrial populations in a little more detail.  The results were not something that the Pretrial Justice Institute or the Justice Policy Institute would ever want you to see.  After eliminating those populations that were deemed to be un-bailable, the percent of the population that was eligible for bail dropped significantly to only 12.9%…a far cry from the 70% claim being made. And the majority of that 12.9% are able to bail out of jail using a commercial bail bond agent. That is why we have decided to share the results as our BAIL MONTH FACT #9.

Posted by: Eric Granof

Read more BAIL MONTH FACTS:

• BAIL MONTH FACT #1
• BAIL MONTH FACT #2
• BAIL MONTH FACT #3
• BAIL MONTH FACT #4
• BAIL MONTH FACT #5
• BAIL MONTH FACT #6
• BAIL MONTH FACT #7
• BAIL MONTH FACT #8

Read more about bail month: Celebrating Bail Month with the Facts

Read ExpertBail’s bail bond blog: ExpertBail Bail Bond Blog

Learn more about the bail bond industry: Bail Bond Questions and Answers