Middlesex DA aims to end bail for non-violent offenses

WOBURN, Mass. — Prosecutors should not ask for bail when a defendant is accused of a non-violent, minor crime, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said Thursday.

Ryan has now instructed prosecutors not to ask for bail in these cases, saying for many people held for 30 days could lose their jobs, homes and families.

"You get held for 30 days and maybe you lose your kids to DCF, maybe you lose your apartment and you lose your job," she explained. "And then, in the end the case would get disposed of without a jail sentence. So it's really about moving that fulcrum a bit and getting a better balance."

The practice is part of a growing movement by district attorneys across the country to re-examine bail request that criminal justice advocates say disproportionately affects minorities and people who are poor.

The local movement stems from a Boston 25 investigation a year and a half ago, when we looked at the pre-trial process.

State lawmakers told us the state spends $1.1 billion a year on incarceration, but half of the population in county jails are people awaiting trial. Their average time in jail is two months, which costs the tax-payers over $100 a day per inmate.

Some are there because they can't afford to post a few hundred dollars bail.

Researchers say pre-trial incarceration is especially tough on women like Meghann Perry, who was struggling with addiction in Maine when she was arrested for selling heroin and sent to jail at five months pregnant.

Ryan says criticism that she's being soft on crime is not the case.

"The kinds of cases that we're looking at, obviously, it will exclude things that we see as a blatant public safety risk: domestic violence, sexual assault, firearms charges. Those are all exluded from this," she said.

MORE: Bail system punishes the poor and costs the taxpayers millions

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