John Oliver tackles America's horrible, unjust, vigilante-feeding bail system

John Oliver explains the problem with the American bail system

(Image credit: Last Week Tonight)

published 8 June 2015

On Sunday's Last Week Tonight, John Oliver explained the problem with our current bail system — it "makes no sense and it does a lot of harm" — proposed a better system, and introduced the uninitiated to the terrifying world of bail bounty hunters. In other words, Oliver did what Oliver does best: Highlight a problem you've hopefully never had to deal with, making you laugh as you cringe at the idiocy.

The main problem is that "increasingly, bail has become a way to lock up the poor, regardless of guilt," he said. If the wealthy are offered the choice, even for crimes like murder — ahem, Robert Durst — they pay bail. But people who can't afford even small amounts of bail have three bad choices: Go to jail, plead guilty to avoid waiting in jail for a trial, or pay a bail bondsman to front the bail costs.

Bail bondsmen either keep a big cut of your bail when you show up for trial, or if you don't, they typically track you down using bounty hunters with "a frightening amount of power" and, often, frighteningly few qualifications, Oliver said. And sometimes, predictably, this system of aggressive vigilantism goes terribly, tragically wrong. The better, cheaper, more humane way is called pretrial services, and if it takes an exciting reality TV show to make this trust-and-verify-based system more popular, well, Oliver tries his best. You can watch below — though be aware, there is some NSFW language. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.