BAIL SYSTEM

Bail assures a defendant’s appearance in court. If the proposed bail reform is implemented, as mentioned in the Miami Herald’s Jan. 22 story “Remaking Bail,” this will have the opposite effect.

Pre-trial release programs (no cash bail) were meant for first-time, nonviolent indigent defendants. When programs such as the proposed are created, there is a tremendous increase in people failing to appear for their court dates. This increases danger to law enforcement due to the thousands of additional warrants.

The lack of consequences for failure to appear generally empowers people to re-offend, resulting in a higher crime rate. Jails become overcrowded when people with standard schedule bail bonds are forced to stay in jail unnecessarily until they see a judge.

This type of reform has been tried, and has failed, across the country. MiamiDade should reject it because it is bad criminaljustice policy.

– Salvador Rivas, Florida chair, National Association of Bail Agents, adjunct professor, criminal justice and sociology, Florida International University, Miami and does not encourage students to think.

Do the governor and our state legislators not realize the university is a place for the free exchange of ideas? Do our politicians want to put braces on the brains of our young people?

Florida must consider what a national laughingstock its higher-education system is becoming.

– Maureen S. Dinnen,

Fort Lauderdale