Thousands of people arrested on low-level crimes in New York City spend days languishing in jail, not because they have been found guilty but because they are too poor to post bail, according to a report to be released on Friday. The report, which examines the bail conditions for people charged with nonfelonies like smoking marijuana in public, jumping a subway turnstile or shoplifting, found that the overwhelming majority of defendants in cases in which bail was set at $1,000 or less were unable to pay and were sent to jail, where they remained, on average, for more than two weeks.
The report comes as the number of arrests for low-level misdemeanors, often referred to as quality-of-life crimes, is rising.
www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/nyregion/03bail.html?_r=2&ref=nyregion
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