This is a brilliant fucking idea. This is how tech needs to be used to actually help communities rather than being used to make the lives of the wealthy more convenient.
Support the fuck outta this.
@Are0h
I don't really understand the US justice system.
What does bail have to do with being guilty or not?
I always thought the only difference is that you don't have to be in jail until your trial?
@gargath @Are0h I haven't seen the studies they're citing, but AFAIK there are a couple of things at work there.
Jails are in theory only occupied for a short term, so they don't have a lot of affordances that prisons do like visitation rights or prison commissaries, and usually everyone there pretty much shares one big cell. So there's a degree of physical coercion. Plea out and you can at least see your family and get a cell with only one other person.
@tobascodagama @gargath the key phrase to remember in this thread is _in theory_ because prisons generally do not operate like that at all, as the reports they cite show.
and it is important to make clear that bail fees are disproportionally applied, varied mostly be the social group of the offender.
as private prisons get paid based upon occupancy, they are often used to keep people in prison rather than as an alternative to avoid time in them.
@tobascodagama @Are0h That makes sense, actually.
Thanks, I had no idea...
@gargath @Are0h Also, the wait to actually go to court is very long in my jurisdictions. If you're on the hook for a misdemeanor, your actual sentence might be only a little bit longer than the time you spent in jail waiting for trial. Plea deals often include short sentences, so it's not impossible for many people charged with a misdemeanor to spend less time in prison if they plead guilty than the amount of time they spend in jail if they're found innocent by the court.