Last week, at a meeting of the Davidson County Democratic Party, District Attorney Glenn Funk commented on the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent decision to phase out contracts with private prisons.

“I don’t think a man should make a profit on keeping another man in chains,” Funk told the group.

But every day, that happens in Davidson County — and not just because the the county jail is itself operated by the private Corrections Corporation of America. Every day, local bail companies are profiting off arrests both major and minor. And every day, there are people who can’t afford bail at all, no matter how low it is set.

In 2015 in Metro Nashville, 11,406 people were arrested and given a bond of less than $5,000. Most of these arrests were driving-related charges, minor drug possession or theft of merchandise under $500. The average bond for arrestees with one warrant was $2,358.82. And 51.5 percent of these people could not post bond — not the full amount of the bail, mind you, but just the 10 percent of the bail that a bondsman would take as a fee. Which meant, on average, they spent two days longer in jail than people with similar charges who bonded out.

This is a problem, says Josh Spickler, the executive director of the Memphis-based criminal justice reform nonprofit Just City.

“You’re paying to keep people there who don’t need to be there,” Spickler says.

Earlier this summer, Just City launched a revolving bail fund in Nashville to help bail out a handful of that 51.5 percent. So far, the organization has helped 12 people, paying their full cash bail. When the cases are resolved, Just City gets the money back, which means it can then bail more people out, and on, and on.

Similar bail funds have been operating in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Chicago and Seattle for a few years. And most of their clients don’t skip out on bail, says Ezra Ritchin of the Bronx Freedom Fund. In fact, 96 percent of the more than 400 people they’ve bailed out have made all of their court dates.

“Cash bail does not do what it claims to do,” Ritchin says. “It’s supposed to only address failure to appear, but it doesn’t. What starts as a misdemeanor arrest turns into life destabilization in every way.”

Here’s what can — and does — happen when people are arrested on minor charges and can’t afford bail and spend those few extra days in prison: They often lose their jobs. When they lose their jobs, they can lose their housing, and they can lose custody of their children. And to get their cases dismissed quickly, they plead guilty, even if they might not be.

But those aren’t the only possible consequences. A 2013 study by the Arnold Foundation found a direct correlation between extended pretrial detention and recidivism rates — starting at just two to three days. When detained for that period of time, as opposed to being bailed out within 24 hours, even low-risk defendants were more likely to fail to appear in court. They were also almost 40 percent more likely to commit another crime before trial.

Spickler says the bond process hurts defendants, hurts families and hurts taxpayers, who are spending unneeded money to keep people in jail who are at little to no risk of flight. And the federal government agrees — a filing by the U.S. Department of Justice two weeks ago in relation to a lawsuit against the city of Calhoun, Ga., states, “a bail scheme that mandates payment of fixed amounts to obtain pretrial release, without meaningful consideration of an individual’s indigence and alternatives that would serve the city’s interests, violates the 14th Amendment.”

Funk says his office wants “to make sure no one is incarcerated because they are poor.” However, he states that he’s definitely not in favor of eliminating cash bail. Every other country in the world besides the Philippines has eliminated it.

“I am certainly open to having a system where a court may determine the community will be protected if someone is released without bail,” Funk says. “But I am not in favor of the overall elimination of cash bail in its entirety, because we need to have a method to ensure [defendants] don’t jump bail.”

Funk’s office was unable, as of press time, to provide the actual number of defendants who did jump bail in 2015.

The for-profit bail-bond industry writes about $14 billion in bonds annually in the United States, which gives the industry a sizable incentive to want the current bail system to stay in place — and it has the lobbying force to put pressure on legislators who might think otherwise. Also of note, during his 2014 campaign for office, Funk received at least $14,000 in donations from local bail bondsmen.

Similarly, although defendants who can’t make bail cost Davidson County taxpayers money, they boost occupancy rates at the CCA-run county jail — and that boosts revenues for CCA shareholders. When asked if Funk’s comments in opposition to private prisons meant he plans to push for an end to CCA’s contract with the jail, his spokesperson Ken Whitehouse responded, “He is focusing on the duties of this office, and the jails are the jurisdiction of other law enforcement officials.”

There is currently a study underway, in collaboration with the public defender’s office, of the bail system in Metro, but it might not be complete until next year. So for now, the Just City bail fund is the best that can be done to ease the situation, Spickler says with a sigh. But he’s not giving up hope for change.

“If we have bail funds around in 10 years, we will have failed,” Spickler says.

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