The Origins of the Bail System in the U.S.

When discussing the U.S bail system, it is necessary that we first look into the English Bill of Rights passed in 1689, because the American bail law is modeled after the system developed in England. In medieval England, arrested criminal would do anything to not show up in court, as the penalties were too harsh. Because of that it was really difficult for local sheriffs to keep them in jail until the appointed court time. The first known instances of setting a bail amount and releasing a defendant after posting bail by judges or than called magistrates were found in England during the Middle Ages, inform the experts from Marvin's Bail Bonds. The Habeas Corpus Act was passed by the English Parliament in 1677, and within the act’s provisions it was stated that defendants charged with felony or misdemeanor crimes would be eligible for posting bail through a bail bondsman or bail agent. 

In the United States, bondsmen and agencies like Marvin Morgan Bail Bonds have been around since the country’s founding. Of course, over the years the laws concerning bail bonds have been changed and refined. Setting fair amounts according to the crime that has been charged has often been addressed with these laws changes. Some specific practices according to individual state laws have also been changed, but the basic concept has remained quite the same, lists Marvin Morgan. When the concept first took shape it was meant to give freedom, rather than detain a person, which implies that bail hasn’t always been a mechanism for locking people up.

But as bail evolved in America, it became less about keeping people out of jail, and more about trapping doors for those who cannot afford to pay it. Unable to meet bail, poor people were sitting in jail for months, often accused for charges that were eventually dropped. Jails were not only overcrowded, but filled with a disproportionate number of poor people. According to Marvin Morgan Bail Bonds the bail system remained mostly unchanged until 1966, when the groundbreaking Bail Reform Act was passed by the Congress, and which was meant to address the inequality and classism that existed in the bail system.