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At long last, someone is willing to bring sanity back to our justice system.
On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end “cashless bail,” bringing to an abrupt end the massive federal grants used by states to fund pretrial release bureaucracies nationwide.
For example, the Edward Byrne-JAG grant — named for NYPD Officer Edward Byrne, murdered in 1988 protecting a witness from a drug syndicate — was designed to fight drug crimes.
But in New York and elsewhere, that money has been hijacked to bankroll “catch and release” policies that keep repeat offenders on the street and leave victims behind.
Last year New York City used $103 million in federal funds to run its “supervised release program” — a huge pretrial bureaucracy of administrators, case managers and social workers.
Some jurisdictions spend on things like ankle bracelets, drug testing, phone check-in systems and transportation vouchers — all from federal grant money.
For years, politicians and activists have claimed “cashless bail” is about fairness.
Let’s call it what it is: A failed social justice experiment, funded by taxpayers.
Federal money created entire bureaucracies devoted not to prosecuting crime, but to simply managing it in order to bypass the use of secured bail — a centuries-old system that ensures defendants return to court while protecting the community.
The result?
Offenders arrested are back on the street in a few hours, reoffending and laughing at the system.
Victims are forgotten.
Communities are terrorized.
And law enforcement officers are forced to re-arrest the same individuals time and time again.
Trump’s order is more than a policy correction — it’s a line in the sand.
It tells states: If you want to continue these reckless programs, do it on your own dime, not the taxpayer’s.
That matters.
Without federal funding, bloated pretrial bureaucracies collapse under their own weight.
States will be forced to return to what works: secured bail, backed by families and communities with a vested interest in ensuring defendants show up.
When a mom or dad co-signs, when a family puts up their home, when a secured bail agent pledges his license and livelihood — accountability returns to the justice system.
We’ve seen the toll of failed policies, from New York to California to Illinois.
In a cashless system, criminals know there are no real consequences.
They boast openly about being untouchable, while victims are revictimized by a system that values ideology over safety.
New Yorkers, in particular, know this pain.
Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo forced bail reform into his state budget with no debate and no regard for warnings from police, prosecutors, or victims’ advocates.
We still live with that damage today.
The federal government, under Trump’s leadership, is finally saying enough.
Accountability is not cruelty — it is justice.
Secured bail balances the presumption of innocence with public safety.
And it works: Defendants return to court at far higher rates than in taxpayer-funded programs, at zero cost to the public.
Trump’s order is a turning point.
It sends a clear message: America will no longer subsidize policies that endanger citizens and embolden criminals.
Michelle Esquenazi is president of the National Association of Bail Agents and of the New York State Bail Association.