Baltimore Imposes Bail Bonds Of Half A Million Dollars In Legal Crackdown

Republican governor extends 24-hour detention-without-charge limit ‘to protect public safety’ while courts impose sky-high bail bonds for minor offences
Oliver Laughland, Paul Lewis and Jon Swaine in Baltimore
The Guardian
Apr. 29, 2015

Baltimore's under-fire criminal justice system risked antagonising its already seething local community on Wednesday by suspending legal procedures and imposing bail bonds of up to half a million dollars on the city's most impoverished residents.

In one especially stark case, a 19-year-old charged with eight offences allegedly committed on Saturday, including riot, theft and disorderly conduct, was set a bail of $500,000. Court records show the defendant, a black man, was sent to jail after failing to produce the funds.

Meanwhile, most of the 235 people arrested during riots and protests in the past week still have not been charged, after Maryland's new Republican governor, Larry Hogan, effectively suspended the state's habeas corpus law -- which limits detention without charge to 24 hours -- in a move he said was "necessary to protect the public safety".

The tough treatment meted out to the more than 200 people arrested after unrest in the city was implemented by the governor as part of a state of emergency that also involved a 10pm to 5am curfew on Tuesday, enforced by 1,500 national guard troops.

The curfew, a response to sporadic rioting on Monday, will be repeated every night for the next week.

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