No. of Recommendations: 6
Judges have this discretion - they can order an offender to be held without bail.
Judges' discretion is limited - after all, they too are part of the state, and are constrained in just throwing someone in prison without them having been convicted of a crime. Accusations and arrests are not a conviction. Most states have statutory or constitutional provisions that set out the conditions under which pre-trial detention can be ordered.
Here in Florida, those conditions are (mostly) limited to situations where the defendant is either accused of a "dangerous" crime (statutorily defined, consisting mostly of felonies of violence against other persons and various DUI charges), there is evidence of prior violations of pre-trial release/parole conditions, evidence that they'll flee the jurisdiction, etc. It varies from state to state, but that's generally the case: if you're not being charged with a serious felony involving personal violence or a few other specified crimes, and aren't likely to skip town or otherwise violate your pre-trial release conditions, the judge is not going to be able to order pre-trial detention.
The criminal justice system is part of the state. It's part of the government. Any system of robust protections of personal liberty is going to make it difficult for the government to imprison you before you're convicted of a crime. That's just the nature of personal liberty in a free society.
Albaby
