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President Donald Trump recently targeting "cashless bail," the policies that permit the release of people arrested for crimes pending trial without requiring them to pay money.

One in Washington, D.C. to be "held in Federal custody to the fullest extent permissible under applicable law." The other order calls for the that "substantially eliminated cash bail as a potential condition of pretrial release from custody" for many offenses.

Cashless bail does not mean that everyone is simply released unconditionally to await trial. Instead, judges have the ability to detain people who pose a specific threat to another person or the community. And they can impose conditions on those who are released, including .

Trump cashless bail policies for threatening public safety because they can release dangerous people from detention.

As and scholars, we have .

We have found that can . And they can also curtail mass pretrial incarceration that to afford bail. That includes three jurisdictions that we examine in detail below: , and .

The rise of bail bonds

by an accused person in exchange for being released from custody pending the resolution of criminal charges.

In many U.S. jurisdictions, however, people pledge money or property as collateral for their pretrial release. But , referred to as . Others are denied pretrial release altogether because they pose a risk of flight, a risk of failing to appear, or pose a danger to the community.

Historically, and one's reputation, not money. Money bail became more common around the turn of the 20th century with the rise of , in which a bail bond business would front the bail money, charging the arrestee a portion of the bail amount as a fee.

This created a system in which people with money could for many crimes—even serious felonies. Conversely, between and of people despite the availability of bail bonds. This was not because they were dangerous, but because they lacked the financial resources to come up with the 10% of their bail amount to purchase their pretrial freedom.

The problems with cash bail

On any given day, approximately are locked up in jails in the United States. Only about 30% of these people are serving sentences following criminal convictions. The remaining 70% in jail are awaiting trial.

Typically, this is not because a court has judged them a risk to public safety. And usually it's not because a judge decided they are unlikely to appear at scheduled court hearings.

Instead, they the money bail that has been set in their cases. This can have or even consequences, such as lost homes and jobs, . Indeed, suicide is the leading cause of death in jails, and pretrial detainees are than those serving jail time after convictions.

found that "even when bail is set comparatively low—at $500 or less, as it is in one-third of nonfelony cases—only 15% of defendants are able to come up with the money to avoid jail." In 2017, the jailing of people who could not afford bail cost taxpayers —an amount that exceeds $50 million today, adjusted for inflation.

And it has allowed commercial bail businesses—and the nine insurance companies that that underwrite more than $14 billion in bail bonds issued each year—to earn profits in excess of .

Conversely, money bail systems allow , even those who or pose a , to be released because they can afford to post bail.

Bail reform in Washington

in the early 1990s. The city replaced it with a system that overwhelmingly pairs pretrial release with levels of supervision tied to the risk that a court determines a defendant might pose. As a result, roughly 87% of all people arrested in Washington are released pending trial .

Despite the lack of money bail, the city has experienced and low reoffending rates. Between 2019 and 2024, 89% of in the city showed up to their scheduled court appearances—and 90% remained arrest-free. Even among those accused of violent offenses, 98% were not rearrested for violent crimes while on pretrial release.

Washington shows that when people are given the tools and reminders they need, they are overwhelmingly likely to comply with court obligations. That includes , and about court dates or access to pretrial services. Moreover, these results illustrate that alternatives to cash bail can function effectively, without compromising public safety.

The Illinois and New Jersey experiences

in 2017 by virtually eliminating cash bail. The state replaced it with a framework that relies on judicial assessments and pretrial monitoring to decide whether defendants should be detained or released.

Within two years of , the state's by roughly . Most notably, the state did this by reducing the number of defendants held in jail for .

This reduction was not accompanied by an increase in in court or in new criminal charges.

A recent echoed those findings, confirming that the decline in incarceration came without increases in gun violence. The study also found that the number of people held on low bail amounts—$2,500 or less—fell sharply, from more than 12% of the jail population in 2012 to just by 2021.

Early data analyses after Illinois eliminated cash bail in show that jail populations declined with .

Further, in Cook County have decreased since the law took effect, including a 15% reduction in Chicago.

Broader considerations

In 2024, the Brennan Center for Justice, a public policy institute, analyzed data from 33 cities, comparing 22 that had enacted bail reforms with 11 that had not. The researchers found that there was . When combined with the data from Washington, New Jersey and Illinois, it seems clear that jurisdictions can protect public safety while also reducing unnecessary and harmful pretrial detention.

In New Jersey, for example, thousands of people—many from communities of color—were able to while awaiting trial. Rather than destabilizing people's lives by unnecessary incarceration, the state contributed to greater stability for them, their families and communities.

The question moving forward is how to build on these successes.

As policymakers consider next steps, these empirically supported results can provide guidance. They provide evidence that cashless bail is not a threat but an opportunity for .