Alabama bail for drug offenders twice as high as bail for murderers

Drug offenders don’t just make bail bondsmen uneasy, they make law enforcement agencies and court officials wary, too. Alabama is just one of many states in which their respective Supreme Courts have set their recommended maximum bail higher for drug offenders than any other type of crime — up to $150,000 for drug manufacturing. A Class A felony, in comparison, has maximum bail set at $60,000, and a non-capital murder at $75,000.

“The reasoning behind it is not so that it’s much higher than other crimes,” said Calhoun County District Judge Mannon Bankson, who hears pretrial felony cases in the county and sets bond for defendants. “It’s just trying to get them off the streets.”

It’s something law enforcement sees all the time, according to Calhoun County Sheriff Larry Amerson.

But even more important than keeping drug offenders off the street, Amerson said, is keeping the offenders away from the cause of the problem.

Read more: Anniston Star – Why bail for drug offenses tends to be higher that that for graver crimes

Oh, well, that has us all sleeping well at night.  Alabama finds it twice as important to keep a drug offender off the street than a murderer.  Or almost three times as important as keeping a kidnapper, rapist, burglar, wife-beater, or arsonist off the streets.