“It Broke Me Down”: The Collective Toll of Privatized Bail

• In Event: Privatization in the Criminal Courts

Abstract

Poor defendants often rely on family members and friends to help them post bail. What are the consequences of these expenses for payers and their dependents? Findings from a 12-month ethnographic study of the bail system in a southern city show how the cost of bailing out a loved one can harm many aspects of life for people closely connected to a defendant. For families living paycheck to paycheck, the unexpected cost of a bail payment can have far-reaching and long-lasting effects. Study participants in our field site experienced material deprivation, housing precarity, and relational strain because of these payments. The high price of bail often requires payers to call in favors and pool resources, spreading the toll of even a single bond payment across several households. These findings add to a growing body of evidence that payments required by the criminal legal system have negative consequences for the family and loved ones of defendants.

Authors

• Charlotte Baker, Harvard University

• Tom Wooten, Louisiana State University