[samolang]

I could be mistaken, but I don't think the idea is to force poor people to be detained. I think the purpose is to provide an incentive for the accused to show up to their court date. If the person posts the bail themselves, then they get the money back when they show up. If they use a bail bondsman, then a bounty hunter will track them down if they don't show up.

[bjourne]

Then why didn't this kid, and anyone else stuck in arrest that can't pay the bail, use a bail bondsman to get out of it? It seems like a reasonable idea but broken in practice. If I wanted to become a fugitive I wouldn't care of I was chased by both bounty hunters and the police.

[samolang]

You still need to pay the bail bondsman 10% of your bail (and you don't get it back). He probably didn't have a spare $50k. The question I have is why was the bail $500k? That seems excessive.