By Anna Kaminski, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — An examination of Sedgwick County’s bail system found practices that exacerbate inequality within the criminal justice system, leading advocates to request change.
A key finding from a recently released report from the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas revealed that the county’s bail system “penalizes poverty, perpetuates racial disparities, and undermines the presumption of innocence.”
The report found that the money bail system in Sedgwick County, home to Wichita, results in many people who haven’t yet been convicted of a crime spending more time in jail because they can’t afford to pay for their release ahead of a trial.
Lindsay Callender, a policy associate with the ACLU of Kansas, said pretrial jail time should be reserved for ensuring court appearances, preventing harm to the public and avoiding judicial interference.
“But instead, many people spend up to months behind bars awaiting trial for low-level, nonviolent offenses simply because they can’t post bond, regardless of their guilt or innocence,” Callender said in a news release.
Judges in Kansas often apply bail uniformly, the report said, without consideration for individual circumstances.
The report urged judges to set bonds, the conditions of a person’s release on bail, based not on a set schedule but on individual assessments of flight risk, the danger to the public and financial standing.
The average total bond amount for people charged with crimes in Sedgwick County is more than $104,000, while the average income is less than $90,000. The median income is lower at around $66,000.
The median bond amount for people facing nonviolent charges in Sedgwick County is $1,500, which the report said can be burdensome for low-income groups.
The report found that Sedgwick County’s bail system mostly punishes people accused of committing nonviolent crimes, making up about 84% of all charges awaiting trial. More than half of those charges were tied to procedural violations, which the ACLU attributed to issues of poverty or substance use. Around 15% of the nonviolent charges were drug-related.
Men make up the majority of the population in the Sedgwick County jail. Black individuals make up around one-third of the jail population and about 9% of the county’s general population.
The report said the racial and gender inequalities “in Sedgwick County’s bail system are extreme even by standards of the American justice system.”
It continued: “Black individuals are more likely to be charged, held on bail, held longer, and held on higher amounts. Women, who make up just over a quarter of the incarcerated population, face distinct and compounded hardships, from financial strain to exacerbated mental health challenges.”
A majority of Kansas voters that the ACLU polled statewide in 2023 expressed concern about inequalities in the state’s criminal legal system. More than half of those polled said the system carries “different standards of justice for the rich and the poor.”
Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas, said the issues within Sedgwick County’s bail system didn’t come from nowhere. It is directly tied to “decades of over-policing, surveillance, and disinvestment in vulnerable neighborhoods,” Kubic said.
Bail policy is set by statute in Kansas, leaving change up to legislators. A small handful of states have abolished commercial bail bonds, including Nebraska, and others have implemented reforms, which can include personal recognizance bonds. Those allow someone charged with a crime to be released from jail before a trial, but it is dependent on the person showing up for court.
The report suggested the Sedgwick County District Attorney, whose office did not respond to requests for comment, issue a memo requiring its staff to seek personal recognizance bonds for all defendants charged with crimes that don’t involve other people. Assault, murder and rape would be exempt for this requirement, and the report recommends the office tailor any cash bail amounts to the individual’s circumstances, including ability to pay.
Kubic said elected officials have an opportunity to alleviate cycles of harm within Sedgwick County’s bail system.
“Sedgwick County’s money bail system causes financial destruction, employment disruption, and strain on familial relationships that lead to broader socioeconomic consequences for communities — and it makes all of us less safe,” Kubic said.
