Federal Detention Has Tripled Since 1984 — and Claims That Cashless Bail ‘Works’ Don’t Match Reality
Federal Pretrial Detention Soars: A 24% Rate in 1984 Has Become 75% Today
In a recent congressional testimony, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) praised the federal pretrial system as a model of “liberty and freedom". Bail Reform Truth calls him out, sharing facts that tell quite a different story. In a recent publication titled, Congressional Testimony on Federal Bail Reform: A Misleading Portrait of Liberty vs. Reality, Bail Reform Truth shared the following: "According to the most recent U.S. Courts Judicial Business reports (FY 2025), only 32% of federal defendants are released pretrial when immigration cases are excluded — meaning 68% are detained. Including immigration cases, the overall release rate drops to just 20%. Multiple analyses confirm this trend: by 2019, pretrial detention had reached 74.8% in some federal districts, with defendants often held for months."
After the Bail Reform Act of 1984, federal pretrial detention rates rose dramatically. Before the Act, about 24% of federal defendants were detained pretrial; by 2019, that number had climbed to 74.8%.
A report on the first investigation into federal pretrial detention on a national level was released in October 2022 by the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic (FCJC) of the University of Chicago Law School. Combing through data from over 600 detention hearings across four federal districts over two years, the report found that federal courts “have allowed misguided and entrenched practice norms to overshadow the law,” resulting in “skyrocketing” pretrial detention rates.
Dan Toner, a Connecticut licensed bail bondsman, concurs with the detention facts in federal prisons. He shares, as an expert in pre-trial release and accountability with more than 30 years of experience in the bail profession, I have known these conditions for decades. The federal system has held individuals in jail without even attempting to prove guilt or innocence beyond a reasonable doubt. Preventive detention holds presumed innocent people in jail while their case makes its way through the complex court system. This can sometimes take years. “I believe that a careful, informed understanding of the bail bond profession is an important tool for Judges and for the judicial process as a whole; It strikes a balance between the defendant’s presumption of innocence, the prosecution’s responsibilities, and most importantly, the victim’s right to be heard.”
Read the full article from Bail Reform Truth here: https://bail-reform-truth-and-propaganda.ghost.io/congressional-testimony-on-federal-bail-reform-a-misleading-portrait-of-liberty-vs-reality/
