Massachusetts has taken bail reform to a new level, making law-abiding taxpayers foot the additional costs of releasing defendants from jail at night and on weekends when courts are typically closed.
Since 2002, in Massachusetts, defendants seeking release outside of jail time have paid a $40 fee to have a bail commissioner or magistrate come to the police station to approve bail or to have the defendant released without bail.
“This shows how out of touch and completely detached from reality these politicians are.”
But civil rights and social justice groups have argued that such a system disproportionately affects certain racial groups. Eagle Tribune They claim that it unfairly targets low-income earners.
Those arguments appear to have won: Last week, far-left Governor Maura Healey signed a budget bill that not only doubles the fee to $80, but also passes the cost on to the courts and ultimately to state taxpayers.
“The court shall be responsible for paying any fee charged for the collection of bail outside of regular working hours, and any fee charged under this section for bail collected outside regular working hours shall be charged to the court alone. Fee splitting arrangements are prohibited,” the section states. budget Read in parts.
The bail commissioner or magistrate would pay an $80 fee up front and then seek reimbursement from the court. The Massachusetts General Assembly has already allocated $4.8 million in the fiscal year 2025 budget to cover these costs.
Court spokeswoman Jennifer Donahue believes the arrangement is much fairer for suspects, telling the Eagle-Tribune that it eases the “financial burden on individuals who can least afford it.”
Donahue also noted that the change would facilitate remote arraignments, further reducing the inconvenience to defendants. Remote hearings, he argued, “will reduce the length of time defendants are detained, especially in rural areas where travel to a detention facility can take an hour or more.”
MassFiscal spokesman Paul Craney disagrees, pointing out that the system is already overstretched and the $4.8 million allocated for the new policy would be better spent elsewhere. “With the state budget bloated and lawmakers overworking taxpayers, state lawmakers think it’s OK to make taxpayers pay bail,” Craney told The Blaze News.
“This shows how out of touch and completely detached from reality these politicians are.”
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