Many Americans probably aren't too familiar with our country's bail system unless they've unfortunately had to experience it for themselves. That's probably why a lot of what we know about bail comes from reality TV, whether it's Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino explaining that bailing someone out of jail is just another day at the Jersey Shore or Dog the Bounty Hunter running around trying to catch people that skipped out on court before they kill themselves and then jump in a pool of sharks, in that order.
Shockingly, it's not a good thing that our idea of the bail system comes from reality TV. In fact, it has made us think that having potentially unqualified people act as bounty hunters is what justice being served looks like, as John Oliver explained during Sunday night's episode of Last Week Tonight.
And that's just one reason why the United States bail system is kind of messed up. Oliver showed why having people who can't afford bail sit in jail after committing nonviolent crimes and the business of bail bonds can be problematic, especially when pretrial services of interviews, drug tests and calls reminding people to show up to court are better, fairer and cheaper.
But maybe if a reality show just brought us into the exciting world of pretrial services we would be much more on board with this instead of using bail. Oliver gave us a sneak peek at what that would look like on Last Week Tonight. No, a faux reality show called Pretrial Services might not have a trippy, blond, buff guy chasing down bounties, but when you have the thrill of watching other people on their computers, file and express their love for cats, could you really ask for anything more?
Check out the full Last Week Tonight segment below.
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