No Bail for Bangers

An interesting approach:

• Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy has found a new way to keep gang members off their street corners.

  Keep them locked up until they pay up.

  On July 17, the department stopped releasing gang members from police stations on no-cash bonds for misdemeanor arrests. And if they can’t make their often-low bond amount, they have to wait to go to court.

  That means sitting behind bars — sometimes at the Cook County Jail — for up to 48 hours at times.

We aren't sure how prevalent I-bonds are in other jurisdictions, but the complaint is a valid one that misdemeanor and MCC arrests often beat the officers out of the station once their prints clear. We can recall a few instances in our careers where we actually arrested some asshole twice in one night, usually after they returned to the scene of the original arrest to pick up where they left off.

If nothing else, making the arrestee pay out-of-pocket makes them more likely to appear in court to try to get even a portion of their cash back. If McCarthy want to really keep these goofs off the street, see if the Chief Judge will double or triple the bond amounts. Once they know they're going to be sitting in County for a few days unless they come up with $300, we might actually see some changes.

Maybe we could do our Doctoral Thesis on the Impact of Economic Disincentives Upon Criminal Behavior.