BRUH!  If you’re gonna commit a crime….maybe DON’T do it while you’re ALREADY IN THE JAIL?!?!

When deputies were responding to reports of a stolen car in Maine, they ended up stopping a man nearby. While it was determined that he had no connection to the stolen car, he was arrested for an outstanding warrant for theft from Walmart.

The man told officers he had enough money to pay the $200 bail, but then the bail commissioner arrived, the man tried to pay with two COUNTERFEIT $100 bills. In addition to being returned to jail, he was also given an extra charge of forgery, or illegal copying of a document or banknote (money).

Bail is a hot topic within the criminal justice community because a lot of times, the people accused of crime are already suffering from extreme poverty.  After they’ve been charged for a crime they’ve been accused of committing,  they are basically punished before they are found guilty of anything since they end up staying in jail as a result of not being able to pay bail (to be fair, in this case the charge was for attempting to pay bail with counterfeit money which is pretty dang criminal).    The cost of bail keeps the cycle of crime and poverty going (if you’re stuck in jail and you have a job to be at but can’t afford the bail, you can lose your job)!   Still, there needs to be a way to hold defendants in criminal cases accountable to make sure that they show up to their court dates.

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Questions:

1. What are two charges this man could face if he tried his ‘bogus bills & bail’ stunt in Nevada?
2. Is there any other system that you can think of, besides bail, to ensure defendants return for their court date?
3. What are your thoughts on bail as a system used by local courts across the country in general?  Specifically, how do you feel about the balance between pre-trial detention (when people are held in jail before their court dates – often unless they can post bail) and the concept of ‘innocent until proven guilty’?  

Be sure to provide full explanations for each of your answers. For more details, you can read the article this piece was sourced from here:
https://www.heraldstandard.com/news/state/sheriff-man-tried-to-pay-200-bail-with-counterfeit-bills/article_d4892b96-dbc1-558a-9cc5-19b3fef69bda.html

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Contributed by: Marlee Carpenter