The for-profit commercialized bail system is legal in only two countries around the world, the United States and the Philippines.  The money bail system in the United States is structured in a way that, irrespective of whether a defendant is later found guilty or not by a jury, if they are charged with a crime and given bail, they can very well find themselves sitting in a jail cell with no recourse on the basis of nothing more than the size of their wallets.  With COVID-19 cases on the rise in the U.S. since May of this year, prisons and jails have been at a significant risk of an outbreak given the infeasibility of social distancing amongst prisoners.

As a result, states have begun to issue Emergency Bail Schedules that order judges to release defendants that commit misdemeanors or low-level felonies—regardless of whether the arrest was with or without a bench warrant—on a $0 bail.  This has caused a $2 billion industry, the money bail system comprised of 14,000 bail agents around the U.S., to feel the sting of COVID-19 now that local criminal justice systems are being forced to justify the detention of defendants held without bail.  This impact on the money bail system has forced bail bond companies to lay off their staff, as they are failing to make even 10% of the bonds they would normally post.

In contrast, pre-COVID-19, a defendant who had been granted bail would have to either pay a cash bail after their arrest or sit in a jail cell awaiting trial.  Thus, while the law presumes a defendant to be innocent until proven guilty, money bail systems rather reinforce the idea that they are guilty until proven innocent simply because they lack the funds to post a bond.  Despite the obvious harm the for-profit bail system in the U.S. has caused low income defendants and their families, we are beginning to see a shift in various aspects of the criminal justice system, post COVID-19, that may be an indicator that bail reform is finally on the horizon, as states are beginning to take measures that stray further away from the cash bail norm,  and rather focus on reducing the density of inmates kept in jails while they await trial.