According to a January report by the Dayton Daily News, the Montgomery County Bail Review Committee has urged the county's municipal and common pleas courts to follow the wave of bail reform across the nation to ensure poorer, non-violent offenders are not kept in jail only because they can't afford bail.
Here’s what the committee found:
6: Number of times a 17-member bail committee met in 2017 to study other Ohio counties’ and other states’ bail reforms
9: Number of days Markcus Brown was in jail after being stopped for having saggy pants at an RTA bus stop and not having an ID
58: Number of pages in a report that recommended that Montgomery County courts should reform bail practices by suing risk assessment tools and not monetary bond schedules
63: Estimated percentage of the national daily jail population that are awaiting trial
14 billion: Amount that is spent every year to detain citizens not yet convicted of a crime and who pose little risk to the community
2014: Year that New Jersey voted to eliminate cash bail for non-violent offenders
439: Ohio House Bill number that wants to shift courts away from using cash-bail systems
