How to Talk About Cash Bail Reform

Republicans have made cash bail reform a major flashpoint in the crime debate across the country, continuing to hit Democrats as “soft-on-crime.” Attacks on bail reform hit their peak in New York in 2022 when Republican Lee Zeldin made crime a cornerstone of his campaign against Governor Kathy Hochul, contributing to Hochul’s smaller-than-anticipated victory margin and the Democratic loss of several House seats in the state. Republicans are attacking Democrats on this issue everywhere, even in states that aren’t reforming their bail systems.

Bail reform is good policy, but the politics are hard to navigate. Democrats need to be ready to talk about cash bail reform and rebut Republican attacks by invoking values of safety and fairness.

What is Cash Bail Reform?

Judges use cash bail as a guarantee that a defendant will return for a trial or hearing. If they’re unable to pay, they’re held until trial. More than 10.5 million people are arrested every year, and only 5% of those arrests are related to violent crime. In fact, the vast majority (83%) of arrests were for low-level offenses. In most instances, bail reform ensures people arrested for non-violent crimes aren’t in jail simply because they can’t afford to pay bail.

On the flip side, our current bail system has traditionally allowed wealthier people who commit violent and non-violent crimes a better chance to buy their way out of jail pre-trial. It seems implausible that a person of means who commits a violent crime is less dangerous than a poor person who commits a non-violent crime.

As a result of cash bail, around 500,000 people are held in local jails each year due to a lack of money, not because they are considered a danger to society. Pre-trial detention can often last months, with the average length ranging between 50 and 250 days, and have a number of negative consequences.

Notably, bail reform is targeted toward those the criminal justice system deems not a risk to their community. In lieu of bail, judges may release people on their own recognizance or impose conditions to ensure a return to court for trial. In states that have passed bail reform, judges can still set bail for almost all violent felonies and certain nonviolent felonies. Supporters of bail reform say that success would be to decrease the number of incarcerated people, minimize the pre-trial disruption a defendant can experience after an arrest, save taxpayer dollars, and address racial inequities in the criminal justice system all while keeping communities safe, saving taxpayer dollars, and ensuring defendants show up to trial.

Messaging Recommendation

In conjunction with Global Strategy Group (GSG), we conducted an online quantitative survey from October 11th to October 29th of 1,211 likely 2024 battleground voters. Despite the potency of cash bail attacks, 66% of voters said ending cash bail for nonviolent offenses wasn’t contributing to crime in their area. We tested two common opposition attacks to ending cash bail and four potential frames for how to push back. While all four outperformed the Republican message, two stood out as particularly potent.

A message focused on safety beat the Republican message by 34 points (67-33). And it outperformed a message saying most crimes are minor and non-violent by 14 points. When voters hear “crime,” they think about violent crime.

• We need to be focused on keeping our communities safe from violent criminals, which is why defendants should be held in jail before trial based on the danger they pose to society, not how much money they have. No one should be able to pay their way out of jail, especially not violent criminals.

A message focused on bipartisanship is effective at combatting concerns that bail reform is extreme, beating the Republican message by 24 points (62-38).

• Reforming the bail system is a commonsense solution that improves public safety, which is why both Democrats and Republicans support it. Just look at New Jersey–they reformed their bail system in 2017 under a Republican governor with bipartisan support in the legislature, and crime has decreased every year since.

Conclusion

The politics of cash bail reform seem tricky, but when we use the right messages, we can diffuse Republican attacks. With crime and bail reform sure to be big issues in 2024, Democrats need to push back with a message on bail reform that centers American values of safety and bipartisanship.

To learn more about cash bail reform, click here.