What to know about cashless bail after Trump's executive order
[August 26, 2025]
By MELISSA GOLDIN
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday threatening
to withhold or revoke federal funding to local and state governments
that offer cashless bail, arguing that it is a threat to public safety.
“No cash. Come back in a couple of months, we'll give you a trial. You
never see the person again," he said, moments before signing the order.
Attorney General Pam Bondi must submit a list of jurisdictions that have
“substantially eliminated cash bail as a potential condition of pretrial
release from custody for crimes that pose a clear threat to public
safety and order” within 30 days, as stipulated in the order.
Proponents of eliminating cash bail describe it as a penalty on poverty,
suggesting that the wealthy can pay their way out of jail to await trial
while those with fewer financial resources have to sit it out behind
bars. Critics of the cashless route have argued that bail is a
time-honored way to ensure defendants released from jail show up for
court proceedings. They warn that violent criminals will be released
pending trial, giving them license to commit other crimes.
Here's what to know:
What it is
Cashless bail refers to policies that allow people to be released from
jail without paying any money while they await trial. It is an
alternative to the traditional cash bail system in which which people
pay money to be released and get their money back if they return to
court when they are supposed to. The Eighth Amendment of the
Constitution prohibits excessive bail.
Where it's offered
In 2023, Illinois became the first state to eliminate cash bail when the
state Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law abolishing
it. The move was part of an expansive criminal justice overhaul adopted
in 2021 known as the SAFE-T Act. Under the change, a judge decides
whether to release the defendant prior to their trial, weighing factors
such as their criminal charges, if they could pose any danger to others
and if they are considered a flight risk.
A number of other jurisdictions, including New Jersey, New Mexico and
Washington, D.C., have nearly eliminated cash bail or limited its use.
Some have used practices such as court date reminders, transportation
vouchers, flexible scheduling and on-site child care to increase court
attendance for people who have been released without bail.
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Attorney General Pam Bondi listens as President Donald Trump holds
an executive order signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White
House, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
When it's offered
Policies vary by jurisdiction, but many exclude the use of cashless
bail for more serious crimes such as murder and other violent
offenses. Cashless bail might also be denied if there is concern an
individual might flee before trial. In some cases, it is granted
automatically for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies.
The impact on crime
Studies have shown mixed results regarding the impact of cashless
bail on crime. Many focus on the recidivism of individual defendants
rather than overall crime rates.
Loyola University of Chicago’s Center for Criminal Justice published
a 2024 report on Illinois’ new cashless bail policy, one year after
it went into effect. It acknowledges that there is not yet enough
data to know what impact the law has had on crime, but that crime in
Illinois did not increase after its implementation. Violent and
property crime declined in some counties.
A 2024 report published by the Brennan Center for Justice saw “no
statistically significant relationship” between bail reform and
crime rates. It looked at crime rate data from 2015 through 2021 for
33 cities across the U.S., 22 of which had instituted some type of
bail reform. Researchers used a statistical method to determine if
crime rates had diverged in those with reforms and those without.
The report found that “put simply” there was no “significant
difference in crime rates between cities that reformed their bail
policies and those that did not.”
Asked last month what data Trump was using to support his claim that
cashless bail leads to increase in crime, the White House pointed to
a 2022 report from the district attorney’s office in Yolo County,
California, that looked at how a temporary cashless bail system
implemented across the state to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks in courts
and jails impacted recidivism. It found that out of 595 individuals
released between April 2020 and May 2021 under this system, 70.6%
were arrested again after they were released. A little more than
half were rearrested more than once.
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