Quote Originally Posted by bobsticks View Post
Be that as it may---and I don't necessarily disagree with you---the argument over process is instantly lost when people make statements like that. Of course, in this country, if the headline contains the word "prostitution" every fat, judgemental stay-at-home bible-mom and her henpecked husband scream, "Throw the book at her!!".

The issue was, and remains, that you can't put unconvicted people in jail for indeterminate amounts of time---and unreasonable bail is de facto just that.

Do we think she's a flight risk? She's got four school aged children. She's part of a community.

Is she a danger to the generall public? What's she gonna do, bludgeon someone with a hooker?

This is akin to the police spending five years wiretapping, reading the emails of and surveilling a nine year old operating a lemonade stand to determine whether or not a valid license is had---and the courts imposing a hundred thousand dollar bail for one citation of failure to obtain.
There might be an argument that he amount of the bail should reflect the wealth of the charged person. I don't see that number of charges has much to do with it. High bail makes sense of the purpose of bail is to deter flight from justice. The other factor is the likelihood of flight for reasons of other than bail.

So the kid with the lemonade stand would have small bail -- unless her dad was, say, Mitt Romney. Now Mitt probably wouldn't skip bail himself, but he could send his kid to a prep school in Switzerland.