[wisty]

IIRC the US has a bizzare system where you get a loan for bail from a private loan shark, so you pay a (not refunded) bond to the loan shark who pays the bail, then the loan shark (sorry, bail lender) eats the loss (or hires bounty hunters) if you skip town.

[9x39]

Mmm, yes, common for indigent defendees. Let's say you get accused of something serious and are given a $50k bond. You either have to to put up $50k, hire a bail bondsman who puts up 10% of that in cash, or sit in jail.

The bondsman guarantees your appearance, but often charges tons of interest or other fees that cost you that $5k, plus whatever collateral you can muster.

Apparently a handful of states bypass the bondsman approach by allowing defendants to post the 10% of the bond in cash to the court itself, and then refunding it minus small fees if the defendant makes their appearances.

Overall, I see where defendants come from but the courts want appearances, and failures to appear aren't rare: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failure_to_appear

(don't go to court if you can avoid it)