(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump has his eyes on ending cashless bail for suspects arrested in Washington, D.C., as thousands of federal agents and National Guard troops patrol the nation’s capital.
Trump is expected to sign an executive order Monday targeting the policy, which allows defendants to be released before their trial or hearing without having to pay, a White House official confirmed to NewsNation.
The order could also threaten to withhold federal funding for jurisdictions across the country with less restrictive bail policies, according to a New York Post report.
What is cashless bail, and what are the pros and cons?
Trump is also expected to sign an executive order targeting American flag burning, according to Fox News. Under the executive order, those who “desecrate” the U.S. flag will be prosecuted, and the attorney general will pursue legal action clarifying the scope of the First Amendment as it relates to flag desecration, the outlet said.
Trump has previously called cashless bail a “disaster.”
“Maybe they’ll self-clean up, and maybe they’ll get rid of the cashless bail thing. The things that cause the problem. If you go back to this whole thing with cash, it’s a disaster. So many problems came up that we never had before,” Trump said earlier this month during a news briefing after he ordered the D.C. police department under federal control and deployed the National Guard to patrol the district.
If cashless bail is eliminated, those arrested by federal agents in D.C. and awaiting a court date would have to pay to be released.
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What is cashless bail?
Bail allows an arrested individual to pay money to be released from jail before their trial or hearing. Cashless bail allows for release without having to pay, and it generally does not apply to defendants accused of violent crimes or serious felonies.
The latter policy, supporters argue, promotes more fairness by eliminating financial barriers to one’s release and bases pretrial release decisions on risk to public safety and likelihood of appearing in court instead of financial resources.
Critics, on the other hand, say it could lead to increased crime, though the nonpartisan policy institute Center for American Progress found no evidence linking cash bail reform to high crime rates, instead reporting “those who await their trial in the community are no more likely to be re-arrested after bail reform was passed than before.”
