In recent years, the Cuyahoga County court system has drastically cut its use of cash bail. That means fewer people sit in jail while awaiting trial.

The shift followed calls to dismantle a bail process that created a two-tier system: one for those who could pay for their freedom and one for those who could not. Local and national reports showed those who could not were most often poor or Black.

The Marshall Project reviewed the bail decisions Cuyahoga County judges made in nearly 70,000 felony cases filed between 2016 and 2022 to understand how their bail practices had changed. Overall, judges are now setting cash bail in felony cases far less frequently and are more often setting personal bonds — which don’t require payment for release.

Check the link for the whole story. There’s been positive changes, but nothing institutional to ensure they keep going.