Your Money or Your Freedom

Deep Dive with Laura Arnold

Right now in the United States, there are almost 500,000 people being held behind bars who have yet to receive their day in court. In the vast majority of those cases, the defendant is being held simply because they cannot meet the financial demands imposed by a money bail system. In short, they do not have enough money to buy their freedom. Now, in the midst of a reform movement, the fundamental fairness of that system is being questioned. But reform is also giving rise to a new question, "what should the new system look like?"