NC Policy Watch: “Jordan needed an unsecured bond, or he wasn’t getting out of jail. The 24-year-old Black man had been arrested on Oct. 8, charged with possessing drug paraphernalia, trespassing, resisting a public officer, and failing to show up for a court hearing, allegations that kept him in jail on a bond he couldn’t afford.
The couple thousand dollars it would cost to get that bond threatened his livelihood, a job at a pizza shop. Jordan was caught in a paradox familiar to people locked up pretrial in a money bail system: unable to work because he was in jail, but unable to get out of jail because he can’t work.
“I’m gonna get fired if I don’t get out soon,” Jordan told Judge Ned W. Mangum from a video feed connecting him from the Wake County Detention Center to the courthouse in downtown Raleigh.
Mangum paged through the file on his desk and noted that Jordan had seven pending charges and hadn’t shown up for court hearings before. Jordan was surprised he had so many cases, so the judge started listing them.
“Sir, those are mostly old,” Jordan said, offering a defense for why he had missed court in the past.
“It’s hard for me to see things,” Jordan said. “I’m half blind.”
Mangum said he wouldn’t make the bond unsecured, which would have let Jordan go home without having to post any money. Instead, it would be a $2,000 secure bond, which Jordan could post himself and get back after he shows up to court — or pay a bondsman a few hundred dollars that he would never see again, even if he went to all his hearings.
It was Jordan’s choice. But it’s not much of a choice if someone doesn’t have the cash.
“If I don’t bond out, I have to sit here until November the second?” he asked.
“Correct,” Mangum said.”