From the renowned founder of The Bail Project, an eye-opening book about why we allow money to play any role in the administration of justice

>With engaging and accessible prose, Robin Steinberg, founder and CEO of The Bail Project, and her colleague Camilo Ramirez tell the shocking true stories of people jailed by poverty while also detailing:

• the history of bail, from its inception in medieval England, as an incentive for people to return to court, to modern America where it is a "mechanism for detention"

• the roles lawyers, judges, and legislators have in the legal system and how and why they have become complicit in excessive bail

• how the current bail system undermines the promise of a fair and just system and the U.S. Constitution

• effective alternatives to cash bail

For fans of The Race to Incarcerate by Marc Mauer and James Kilgore's Understanding Mass Incarceration, Steinberg, whose previous book was called "powerfully insightful reading" by Kirkus Reviews, and Ramirez provide an unprecedented look at America's cash bail system and inspire us to imagine a better, fairer way forward.