‘Not a get out of jail free card.’ Why ACLU is fighting Manatee, Sarasota over bail amounts

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida has filed 11 individual lawsuits against the Manatee and Sarasota sheriffs challenging the cash bail system after the Second District Court of Appeals dismissed a class action lawsuit filed earlier this week.

The class action petition for writ for habeas corpus was filed Monday on behalf of 11 people currently being held in the Manatee and Sarasota jails because they cannot afford their bails, according to the 51-page petition.

Without providing alternative means for any of the 11 to bail out of jail, the ACLU claims that they are being held in pre-trial detention which is a violation of due process rights under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The suit was dismissed Tuesday, however, without prejudice to those 11 named in the class action, meaning they were free file their own individual petitions. On Thursday, the ACLU did just that, filing 11 petitions.

Not wishing to speculate as to why the court was not in favor of a class action — a tactic that has been successful in other parts of the country — Benjamin Stevenson, staff attorney with the ACLU of Florida, said, “It seemed to be the court’s view that these cases and these systematic issues should be handled through individual petitions.”

Sheriff Rick Wells did not return calls seeking comment.

“These cases are less about what any particular bail should be but are much more about challenging the constitutional basis,” Stevenson said. “Americans care about the process, not just the outcome. Bail determinations often not given the time consideration they deserve.”

All 11 cases chosen in this fight were extremely similar in how each person was deprived the process guaranteed by the constitution before having their liberty taken away. Too often around the state, Stevenson said he sees cash bails being set high as a way to circumvent what the law requires to hold someone in pre-trial detention.

“It is not an accident that Florida wrote the pre-trial detention statute the way it did. It’s constitutional,” Stevenson said.

Are risk assessment tools used?

Jails across the country have the tools to evaluate someone’s risk to public safety and ensure they appear in court, Alex Piquero, a criminologist at the University of Miami, told the Bradenton Herald.

“A lot of these people don’t need to be held in detention when they don’t pose a risk,” Piquero said of the many people held in pre-trial detention regularly. “We know there are risk tools that are used by correctional officials all the time around America. They help us determine who is most at risk, who is least at risk. So let’s follow the science and not detain people when they are not at risk.”

George Whitfield, one of the petitioners in the class-action, has been held on bonds totaling $2,000 for charges of possession of drugs and paraphernalia at the Sarasota County jail since his Aug. 4 arrest.

Whitfield cannot afford the bond and has lost his job as a result of his detention, according to the ACLU.

Other options to bail out of jail

Public Defender Larry Eger, whose office has argued for bond for each of the 11 named, estimates that 70% of those being held at the Manatee County jail are people whose cases are still pending.

“Our belief is people that have been accused of a crime are innocent unless — not until — unless proven guilty,” Eger said. “We also rely on the rules of criminal procedure that states that there is a presumption of non-monetary bond.”

But too often, the court jumps to the last option in setting or letting a previously set monetary bond stand, he explained. The Supervised Release program or electronic ankle monitoring are some of many reasonable conditions that can be imposed to allow someone to be released from jail.

“The purpose of any conditions is public safety and the integrity of the legal system. They want you to appear in court,” Eger said. “There have been no studies, no empirical studies that show that a monetary bond has any correlation with public safety or your appearance in court.

But too often, Stevenson told the Bradenton Herald, a cash bail is set without consideration for alternatives that allow someone to return home to their families and jobs while their cases are pending.

“The reality is most people come back to court whether it is a $10K bail or a $1,000 bail or court supervision,” he said.

But he added, “unaffordable bail is not a get out of free jail card” but instead that person’s release should be facilitated through other means.

“In fact, there is a number of states that do not even have monetary bond; they have eliminated monetary bond.”

Eger argues that even a $500 bond can be unreasonable for people who cannot that amount and likewise could not even afford to hire an attorney, instead having a public defender appointed for them.

“Poverty should not dictate being incarcerated,” Eger said.