(INDIANAPOLIS) – New limits on charities which post bail could get a vote next week in the Senate.
Both the House and Senate have approved versions of bills limiting the ability of groups like The Bail Project to bail people out of jail. The latest revision says bail charities can post bail for nonviolent felonies — previous versions limited them to misdemeanors.
But both versions of the bill cap the amount bail charities can put up at $2,000. Bail Project operations manager David Gaspar calls it a direct attack on his group and on the poor. He notes people have a constitutional right both to bail and to the presumption of innocence, and charges the bill would restrict those rights to those who can afford private bail bonds.
Gaspar argues there’s no good reason to treat bail charities differently from private bondsmen. He notes it’s judges who set the bail amount, and argues it shouldn’t matter who pays it.
A Senate committee reinserted a provision from its own version of the bill, banning government entities from giving money to those groups. Indianapolis Senator Aaron Freeman (R) says a Marion County grant to The Bail Project prompted him to file the bill in the first place.
Freeman and the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police have pointed to reports of three defendants accused of committing violent crimes after The Bail Project helped them win release on earlier charges, The Marion Superior Court has paused the organization’s grant, contending it’s failed to deliver required reports on its work. Senate Minority Leader Greg Taylor (D-Indianapolis) counters the group has a 96% record of its clients appearing for court appearances as required, and vowed to gather similar statistics on private bondsmen before the full Senate debate.
