On any given day, local jails hold hundreds of thousands of people who are awaiting trial rather than serving a sentence. Many are there because a judge set cash bail they cannot pay, often for low-level charges. A person with money can go home for the same charge.
Even a few days in jail can cost someone a job, housing or custody of children. Research has found that people held before trial are more likely to plead guilty and more likely to receive jail or prison sentences than similar people who are released. Detention pressures people to accept plea deals just to get out.
Black and Latino defendants are more likely to be held and to receive higher bail amounts. The Supreme Court upheld preventive detention without bail in United States v. Salerno (1987), and the federal Bail Reform Act of 1984 allows judges to detain people deemed dangerous.