Bail

‘Squandered Opportunity’: One Of The Many Reasons Bail Reform Is Imperative

This issue needs to be further examined by state and local governments before it's too late.

By Staci Zaretsky on May 13, 2016 3:00 pm
Adam J. Foss (Photo via LinkedIn)

Adam J. Foss (Photo via LinkedIn)

The purpose of bail is to make sure you return to court. If I don’t have $50 to get bailed out of jail, where am I going to go where you can’t find me and bring me back to court?

If you put me into jail and I’m employed and just barely making it, even if it’s just for three days — nevermind six weeks, six months, a year — the little bit that I had before I went in, when I did that petty little thing, it’s going to be gone when I get out.

So now you’ve taken that little bit of opportunity that I had and squandered it by keeping me in a system that costs you more money. When I get out what am I going to do? I’m going to sell, I’m going to steal, I’m going to rob, I’m going to go back in and cost you more money.

— Adam J. Foss, a former Assistant District Attorney in the Juvenile Division of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office in Boston, Massachusetts, and co-founder and president of Prosecutor Integrity, in comments made about bail reform earlier this week as a panelist during the SundanceNow Doc Club debut of Take 5: Justice in America, a collection of five-minute documentaries focusing on some of today’s highly relevant issues, including bail reform, the working poor, voting rights, gun control, and gentrification.

(If you’re interested, you check out Foss in his TED Talk on a prosecutor’s vision for a better justice system here.)

Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.