Trump signs executive order to eliminate cashless bail in Washington

Donald Trump on Monday signed two executive orders aimed at eliminating cashless bail for people accused of crimes in Washington DC and other jurisdictions, an escalation in his efforts to take control of law enforcement in the capital city and beyond.

The executive orders direct Washington and other localities to end their cashless bail programs, which allow people charged with crimes to leave jail while they await trial without paying what can be large sums of money. The order says that the federal government will reconsider funding decisions, services or approvals if Washington does not comply.

One order also instructs the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to identify jurisdictions across the US that have cashless bail policies and revokes federal funds and grants that go to those jurisdictions, according to the White House.

“They kill people and they get out,” Trump said about cashless bail in the Oval Office when he announced the order. “We’re ending it, but we’re starting by ending it in DC, and that we have the right to do through federalization,” he added.

Data shows that crime does not increase by any significant margin in places that have implemented cashless bail programs, as Washington did in 1992, and people released from prison without posting bond are extremely unlikely to commit violent crime. Nevertheless, Trump has taken aim at the policy and claimed it has contributed to the city’s violent crime rate, which last year hit a 30 year low.

Washington was one of the first jurisdictions to enact cashless bail, starting a trend of cities and states moving to a system that doesn’t lock people up for their inability to pay. In 2023, Illinois became the first state to enact cashless bail.

“You don’t even have to go to court sometimes,” Trump claimed falsely about Illinois in the White House Monday.

Trump has also falsely said that under cashless bail policies, “somebody murders somebody and they’re out on no cash bail before the day is out.” In Washington and other places with cashless bail, a judge can make a determination to detail someone pre-trial if they feel that the accused is a danger to the community or a flight risk, as is often the case with those accused of murder.

Jeremy Cherson, the director of communications for the Bail Project said Trump’s executive order would deepen inequities and waste taxpayer dollars. The Bail Project is a national organization that pushes for bail-related policy change and provides free bail assistance to low income people.

“The data is clear that bail reform has not led to increased crime,” he said. “While the president is right that the current system is broken, he is wrong about the solution.”

“What we’re pursuing is a system where safety, not wealth, determines release pretrial, and if you look at a lot of the jurisdictions across the country that have minimized or eliminated the use of cash bail, that’s what their systems do.”