Letters to the Editor: My group helps people pay bail. Our experience shows cash bail is unnecessary

To the editor: The necessity of cash bail in the American pretrial system is a fallacy, confirmed by our own work at the Bail Project, a national nonprofit working to reduce reliance on cash bail and pretrial jailing. (“Cash bail is unfair, but so is no-cash bail. Some states strike the right balance,” letters, Aug. 27)

Since 2018, we have paid bail for 30,000 people. Our clients return to more than 91% of their court dates, laying waste to the idea that cash bail is necessary to ensure someone returns to court.

Nevertheless, this is the current, two-tiered system: Former President Trump and his co-defendants can easily pay $200,000 and never spend a day inside the notorious Fulton County Jail, while our clients cannot afford the price of their freedom ($10,000 being the national average) and are forced to spend months in jail, when they haven’t even been convicted.

We have a promise of equal justice under the law. This is not it.

Erin George, Philadelphia

The writer is national director of policy at the Bail Project.