Due Process in Bail Setting and Review Must be Substantially Improved

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All Persons shall be heard by a judge on the issue of the setting of bail no later than 48 hours after arrest.

Ideally, that period would be a few hours, and the court would be in session 24 hours a day to have individualized consideration of every defendant. Bail schedules, however, should be maintained where necessary to allow for release from jail 24 hours a day. All reviews from bails set by a bail schedule should occur within the constitutional time period, which we know is constitutional at 48 hours.

All persons should have the ability, when, after a certain period of time has passed and that person remains in custody, to have a second de novo hearing on bail.

Several states, including New York, have such a provision,
and the American Bail Coalition believes that all criminal defendants who remain in custody should have a right to a second de novo bail hearing if they remain in custody for more than 10 days after arrest or if there is a change in circumstances warranting an additional hearing.

The expansion of due process should also include the rights of the people to argue for increases in bail or changes in conditions of release or the imposition of specific individualized considerations. The right of due process of victims of such crimes should also be increased in the process.


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4th Generation of Bail Reform

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The 4th Generation of Bail Reform Thirty four years after the federal government embarked on this grand risk-based bail experiment, an experiment which no one thought constitutional at the time, it is now time instead for a fourth generation of bail reform. One that returns the American bail system into what it is supposed to be. A bail bond which is solely based on the defendant’s appearance in which judges set appropriate bail that balances the rights of the victim of crime, the person accused of the crime, and the people who seek to prosecute the accused.5.22 MB11-21-2018 DownloadPreview