Jackson Free Press

With the end of bonding for misdemeanor offenses in the Jackson Municipal Court, the cost of freedom for indigent offenders prior to their trial seems to be the death of the local bonding industry.

Which, to be honest, may not be a bad thing.

What do we gain, as a city, with the abolition of misdemeanor bonds? For one, we get to enjoy the peace of mind that comes with understanding that poor people will be able to walk away from a misdemeanor without having to pay a bondsman at least $100 for the privilege. At this point, they should be presumed innocent before the law, way before a trial. Now instead of only the rich walking away, all will stand equally before the law.

These poor citizens, who sat in jail with no more money to pay their fines for trivial offenses, used to sit for days and days. Now, the City won't have to pay for them to work or to simply sit. We won't have to pay to feed them in jail. They won't take up cell space. They will have the money, in the absence of bonds, to pay their fines.

What are we really losing? If you ask the bail-bonds agents, as one representative commented, the absence of misdemeanor bonds means that the streets will be full of offenders running wild, with no consequences to their actions. Which is mostly an exaggeration on their part, understandably since the practice floated the more than 100 different firms that put up bonds in Jackson.

As a result of the lost revenue source, inevitably the market will shrink with the level of demand. However, there are worse options. As was pointed out by one of the attorneys in the lawsuit against the City, Cliff Johnson, there is little that a bond can do to prevent an offender from repeating his or her offense. The indigent offenders who are most affected by the end of misdemeanor bonding will still have to pay their fines. The court simply must let them go home to await their court date instead of locking them up before they are even convicted. Maybe the bond agents, after they close up shop, will find other ways to invest their money.

More than anything, Jackson does not make this move alone. Biloxi and Moss Point already settled similar lawsuits with matching results. McComb, last week, became one of the first municipalities to voluntarily do away with the practice. And these towns in Mississippi join others all over the country that have decided that the antiquated notion of bonds for misdemeanors erodes at the very constitutional rights that the judicial branch is supposed to protect.

It is a matter of societal conscience. We don't need to needlessly jail those that can't afford the fine after the initial cost of the bail bond.

Human beings will not have to sit in jail just for being poor. We, as a city, must recognize the inherent worth in a person, no matter their bank account balance.