John Oliver examined backlash to bail reform efforts in numerous states, as Republican candidates have made efforts to fix the predatory system of cash bail in the US a bogeyman of public safety.
Oliver first recapped the bail system in the US, which requires those arrested, but not yet convicted, of a crime to pay collateral to a local jail. The system is rife with traps keeping people locked up: bail hearings often last just a few minutes with no defense counsel present – “I don’t know exactly how long it should take to put a price on someone’s freedom, but it probably shouldn’t fit neatly into an Instagram story,” Oliver noted. Bail bondsmen, private businesses which post bail for a fee, have become a lucrative shadow industry.
