On any given day, about half a million people are locked in jail, but not yet convicted of any crime. The most common reason by far is an inability to pay cash bail. Bail is the main driver of mass incarceration, but what is cash bail? How should it work in theory? And how does it work in practice? Are reforms needed? And if so, in what ways?

Today we're talking with Robin Steinberg. She's the founder of the bail project, a nonprofit that advocates reforms to curb mass incarceration, and in particular pays the bail of defendants who can not afford it on their own. We discussed her early days as a public defender, what bail looks like in the court trenches and how policy choices today could make the future of criminal justice better or worse tomorrow.

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