President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to end cashless bail in Washington, D.C. CBS News legal contributor Rebecca Roiphe breaks down the details.

Washington

President Trump has signed an executive order ending cashless bail in Washington, D.C., and has threatened to withhold federal funding from the city if it does not comply. He also indicated plans to extend this policy to other jurisdictions, including New York and Illinois. 

Cashless bail removes the requirement for individuals charged with a crime to pay money to secure their release before trial, aiming to prevent those who cannot afford bail from remaining in jail. Legal experts note that data on the impact of cashless bail on crime and recidivism is complex and inconclusive. Additionally, questions remain regarding the president's authority to withhold federal funds from cities over this issue, suggesting potential legal challenges ahead.

What is cashless bail and why is Trump eliminating it?

President Trump has signed an executive order to end cashless bail in Washington, D.C. And he also threatened to withhold federal funding if the city refuses to comply. The president made it clear he plans to take the measure further, targeting places like New York and Illinois, as well. CBS News legal contributor and former prosecutor Rebecca Roife joins us now to speak about this. Good morning, Rebecca. Great to have you in person rather than via the Web. For once, cashless bail is a relatively new concept. But many of our viewers may not really understand what it is or why it exists. So, what is the idea behind it? Well, yeah, I mean, thanks for having me, Errol. It's great to be here. So, yeah, I mean, bail itself is essentially a cash guarantee that somebody who's charged with a crime will come back to court. So cashless bail eliminates that requirement that somebody pay money in order to assure it. It basically says, if you're let out of jail, you just promise to come back to court. And this is something that more some inner cities, some more progressive jurisdictions have introduced in order to make sure that people who are presumed innocent, obviously, before they've been tried, are not kept in jail simply because they do not have enough money to pay this cash bail requirement. And you and I were speaking before this segment. There was a case here in New York City of a young man who was taken to Rikers Island for stealing a backpack. I think the $3,000 was the bail amount. And even after he was released, the trauma of being incarcerated was so much worse. So, what effect does cashless bail even have on recidivism? Because the other side of the argument is, you've got to do something with people accused of crimes. Right, so, you know, this notion that there's a fundamental unfairness, that somebody like Khalif Browder, who is obviously presumed innocent, would have been kept in jail. He was 16 years old for three years before he was given a right to a trial. And so, the reform movement, which is, you know, the reform movement, is basically saying, you know, we're going to do something with people who the reform movements eliminated this requirement in order to get rid of that unfairness. And so, if, you know, President Trump is right that this is a way to get crime under control, then, you know, that would be at least consistent with his policies. But the studies and data are incomplete and complex and do not show that there is a correlation between eliminating cash bail and reducing crime, or essentially eliminating the unfairness. Or essentially making it such that these individuals do not repeat their crimes. And the data is much more complex, that in some studies show that there might be some correlation in specific instances with people who have particular criminal histories or are charged with particular crimes. But this broad brush is unlikely to do what he wants it to do if it goes forward. And just in our last few seconds, the president needed a staffer to explain to him the details of the case and the circumstances of this EO in the Oval Office when he signed this yesterday. What authority does he have to pull back these federal funds from cities that do have cash? Well, it is very unclear that he has that authority. The Constitution gives Congress through the Spending Clause the right to put certain strings, not any string on spending. But he, of course, is not Congress, nor is it clear that even if he had that authority, that these particular strings would be permissible. So you can certainly expect some legal challenges. And we will watch that closely and call on you again. Great to have you here, Rebecca. My pleasure. Nice being here.

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