Locked Up and Poor
“Roughly six days a week, recently arrested defendants in the King County jail in downtown Seattle stand before judges to be arraigned and, potentially, held in jail on money bail — often with little to no regard of their ability to pay it. Money bail is a mechanism long employed and sanctioned by the Seattle and King County criminal-justice systems as well as in jurisdictions across the state and nation. Judges often set money bail in high figures to detain defendants, ensure they show up in court, and deter them from committing violent crimes.”