California’s bail system is unjust and expensive

Imagine you’re arrested for a crime you didn’t commit. You’re taken to jail and told you’ll only be released if you can pay a large amount of bail money, say $5,000 — 10 percent of $50,000, the median bail amount in California — to a bondsman. You can’t come up with the bail money. What do you do?
Well, in California, you’ll be forced to sit in jail until you either plead guilty to the charges or you get acquitted after going to trial, which can ta