I spent an interesting half-day in court the other day. The court was holding bail hearings for a series of defendants. Every single, one of the defendants, with only one exception, was either black or Latino. What really struck me was the complete powerlessness that those defendants must feel. They may have been treated extremely unjustly, even with brutality by the police. They may be in court on completely trumped up charges. Or if not, they may have experienced such treatment in their past. It didn’t matter. They had to be completely subservient to the judge in the hopes that they would get either a low bail or be released on their own recognizance. They all greeted the judge, “good morning your honor“… yes, your honor … no, your honor.” If they were angry at their situation, if they were upset in any way, they could not show it.Here are a couple of examples:

One youngish black man was still in jail. He appeared through some security room window. It seemed pretty clear that the charges against him were related to alcoholism, possibly DUI. This young man had a wife and a baby on the way. He also was holding down a job. The prosecutor wanted I think it was either $75,000 or over $100,000 bail or perhaps it was no bail at all. The amount did not matter because he would not have been able to meet that bail in any case. So, he would have been locked away for months and months until his case was heard. He would have lost his job and probably not have been there when his child was born. The judge, who was actually a fairly decent type, kind of read him the riot act, stressed, how he had to conform with all the conditions required of him, and then overruled the prosecutor and release this young guy on his own recognizance.

Another case was a Latino guy who did not speak English. (That was clear because he had an interpreter there translating for him.) In this case, as soon as his case was heard two sheriff deputies came and stood about 10 feet behind him. I thought, “Whoa! Something is getting ready to happen here.”) I am not sure exactly what the hearing was about, but this guy’s bail bondsman was wanting to take his bond back immediately, which would have meant the sheriff deputies would’ve taken him on the spot and put him in jail. It also turned out that, while this guy had conformed to all the court requirements for while he was out on bail, the bail bondsman had wanted him to call them every day, to check in with them every day, and this guy had not done that. Now to many people that might seem a simple thing, no reason not to do that. But I was thinking of it from the point of view of this guy. The majority of defendants are probably not the most systematic thinkers, they don’t necessarily clearly think through everything that they are doing in advance. That is probably doubly true for people with substance abuse problems, and it seems this guy had a problem with alcohol. That doesn’t mean that they are bad people or even necessarily that they belong in jail. This guy was living with his sister and his sister‘s daughter, and he was holding down a job. He probably feels nearly overwhelmed, just as it is. And to call up his bail bondsman, when this guy does not even speak English, that is probably something that is just one more thing that he could not do.

So the bail bondsman wanted to revoke the bond immediately, meaning this guy and his attorney would not have had time to find another bail bondsman. That is despite the fact that the law evidently requires a bail bondsman to give “sufficient notice“ to a defendant before they take their bond back. Of course, from the bondsman’s point of view if they give them two or three days notice that gives the defendant time to skip town. In any event, I forget the exact details but the judge gave this guy two or three days to find another bail bondsman.

Now my point is that in both of these cases, as well as in every other case that I heard, the decision was entirely, 100%, up to the judge. That judge could just easily have locked away every one of those defendants, as release them on their own recognizance or give them time to find another bail bondsman.

And then, from the point of view of the defendants, I mean, probably every single one of them from the time that they were old enough to talk, in every way, what was impressed upon them was “you are powerless in this world. What happens to you happens to you And the best you can do is try to find your way without being completely crushed“ yes, truly, those four or five hours I spent watching these little mini dramas unfold were like a metaphor for all of US society.