There is often a thumb on the scale of justice, particularly when it comes to a person’s economic status. The wealthier you are, the better the outcome in most cases and those disparities begin to emerge even before the trial process.
To ensure those charged with a crime appear in court, our judicial system issues bonds that suspects must pay before they are released to await trial. The amount of the bond is based partly on the nature of the crime (violent offenders face high bonds and sometimes are held without bond) and partly on what the court feels is necessary to ensure a suspect does not flee prosecution.
But for poor suspects even a relatively low bond is more than they can afford, even with the help of bail bondsmen, who pay the bond after the suspect has provided a percentage of the bond (usually 10 percent), which the bondsmen keeps as a fee.
The bond is to ensure a defendant appears in court; it is not intended as a punishment in a system where we embrace the idea of innocence until proven guilty.
Yet our jails are filled with people who have not been convicted of the crime they’ve been charged with and the backlog of cases means some of these people are held for months, even years, on end.
This creates not only an inherent unfairness in the system, but is costly for taxpayers — anywhere from $20 to $50 per day per detainee depending on the county. The abundance of those who cannot bond out also creates jail overcrowding.
That’s why we are pleased to learn the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors has entered an agreement with a GPS-monitoring company that will give pretrial detainees an opportunity for a lower bond if they agree to wear an ankle monitoring device, a technology that has been around since the late 1970s, but has become more and more popular, primarily because it has proven to be both effective in ensuing defendants meet court dates and producing substantial savings for the taxpayer.
Oktibbeha County will be the first county in the state to employ this pretrial GPS monitoring system, although it is used in other states. GPS is used in some parts of the state in lieu of jail time for minor convictions or as a condition of parole, but this will be the first use of those devices for those who are awaiting trial in the state.
Not all defendants, especially those charged with a violent crime, will be eligible for the program, Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Brett Watson said. OCSO will test the system through a 12-month pilot program with the goal of having 100 people using it by the end of the period. OCSO will evaluate how the program works after that.
The program has the support of all justice and circuit court judges, along with the candidates for county court judge, Watson said.
If the program is a success, it will save a considerable amount of taxpayer dollars.
It will also mean that for some defendants, being poor won’t get them put in jail for months until they have their day in court.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.