If bail industry opponents were to have their way they'd have everyone convinced that jail crowding could be solved by getting rid of the commercial bail bonds industry.

As they tell it, the root of the problem is that getting out of jail is too expensive for a lot of people and their inability to pay is what's causing the whole mess.

On the surface the argument seems to have a bit of merit, but when you take a minute and start to peel back all of the layers you'll quickly see the claim is false.  Jail populations aren't growing because of the commercial bail industry; if anything, bail bonds professionals are helping detention centers manage pretrial inmates and they're doing so quite effectively.

Two years ago the JFA Institute was contracted by the American Civil Liberties Union to do a study on the LA County Jails.  The ACLU had suspected that up to 70 percent of the inmates were pretrial status and the main reason they were stuck behind bars was because they couldn't afford to hire a bondsman.

The study results blew everyone's minds.  The pretrial inmate population was in fact substantial, but the bulk of those detainees were ineligible for bail due to probation holds, parole violations or because they were waiting to be transferred to other facilities.   Of that 70 percent, only 12 percent were eligible to be released on bail bonds- and the people who make up that percentage revolve in and out of the jail doors every day.

As some inmates get their bail bonds in order, others are just being booked in.

What's more, is that states who don't have a commercial bail bonding industry (such as Illinois) are also dealing with jail crowding issues.  Reports out of Chicago often talk about how the Cook County jails have too many inmates and not enough space to hold them.

The bottom line is that the claim that the commercial bail industry is the sole root of the inmate overcrowding problem is false.

Read the full blog disproven on ExpertBail.com