Family Bail Analysis

Growing up with a family and neighborhood that was riddled with crime, often times those I knew were frequently arrested. Therefore, it was commonly up to my mother, family members, or friends to help bail an individual out of jail. However, I must admit the concept of bail was confusing for me as a child. I understood that I was emptying all the coins from my piggy bank to be able to help get someone out of jail, but I never questioned if helping with bail was ever a good idea. We were poor, and my mother had always told me that the reason she was never able to turn to crime, was because we could never afford the consequences. At the time, I thought she simply meant she did not want to be a criminal because she did not want to be incarcerated, but as I grew older I found her statement to be literal.
On the one hand, there were my beliefs; if an individual did not want to be arrested then they simply should not have done the crime. If said person believes there was a wrongful conviction, then they only have to wait a short while for a trial to be able to prove their innocence. There was no way a court would put away someone who was innocent. Contrary to that, there was my reality. The family members and friends I emptied my piggy banks for, I knew, were all guilty, but their guilt was justified. Bail was set higher after every return to court because the judge held a grudge against my family and friends. The courts were a personal threat to our livelihood, no matter how bad the crime was, and we needed to come together to pay bail, so our people would not have to suffer this “attack”. Bail was just money in the judge’s pockets, that was the only reason they used