The Judge says “CTS plus court costs” into the large TV monitor
linked from the courtroom in the Gerstein Criminal Justice building to
the chapel at the Miami-Dade County jail.  In just a matter of seconds,
each of the hundreds of recently arrested defendants must choose
between “credit for time served” so they can go home to their jobs
and/or families and getting a bond and fighting the charges.  In
Miami-Dade County, there were a total of 20,112 defendants who attended
felony bond hearings during the 2007-08 fiscal year.  With so many
cases, the court has little time for each one, and since indigent
defendants and the public defender are in different buildings,
consultation with one’s attorney is limited at best.



If you have the misfortune of being arrested, you generally want to be
released as soon as possible and with as little negative impact on your
life and reputation as you can manage.  If you are poor, your chances
of obtaining your freedom quickly without immediate adverse
consequences are greatly diminished.  Often, you are offered a Hobson’s
choice:  Plead guilty and acquire a criminal record and a fine along
with your release, or maintain your innocence, stay in jail because you
are unable to pay for bail, and end up being found guilty because you
cannot adequately assist in preparing your defense.



Poor defendants are less likely to be offered release through any of
the mechanisms offered by the judicial system.  Unless the offense is a
minor one on which the police are authorized to set one free, the path
to liberty involves an appearance before a judge through one of three
means:  Release on one’s own recognizance (ROR), release on bail, or
release with conditions through the pre-trial release program.  ROR is
granted rarely especially to low-income defendants, while bail requires
posting a non-refundable fee with a bail bondsman in the amount of ten
percent of bail, and eligibility for pre-trial release is far from
certain.



Although Article I, section 14, of the Florida Constitution provides
that every person charged with a crime except capital crimes and those
punishable by life, shall be entitled to pretrial release on reasonable
conditions, and section 907.041 of the Florida Statutes makes it clear
that the legislative intent is to create a presumption in favor of
release on non-monetary conditions for persons not charged with
dangerous crimes, fewer than one-third of those interviewed for
pre-trial release were granted it in Miami-Dade County in 2008.



The fact is that many poor defendants who refuse to plead guilty remain
in jail because they are unable to post bond and are denied pre-trial
release. National studies show that defendants waiting in jail are far
more likely to plead guilty than defendants who are no longer in
custody.  Defendants who cannot afford to bond out of jail languish
behind bars as they wait, sometimes for weeks, just to be formally
charged by the State Attorney’s office.  Many end up losing their jobs,
apartments, cars, etc. because they are unable to go to work, earn
money and pay their bills.  It is small wonder that many low-income
defendants choose to plead guilty so that they can get out of jail
immediately and hopefully keep their jobs and homes.



The result of this dysfunctional pre-trial release system is twofold: 
overcrowded jails (Miami-Dade County’s jails are operating at 121% of
capacity) and a large proportion of poor people with criminal records
who were simply too poor to fight the charges against them.



If you are faced with Florida criminal charges that are backed by the
formidable power of the government • the State of Florida or the United
States Department of Justice • you can depend on the criminal defense legal team at the law firm of Robbins, Tunkey, Ross, Amsel, Raben & Waxman in Miami, Florida. You will find more than an effective, experienced Miami defense attorney
who will aggressively and affirmatively represent you. Your case will
benefit from the collaboration of six criminal defense lawyers with
more than 175 years of combined experienced.