Being arrested means that one is taken into police custody and a report is filed. A county or city prosecutor reviews the report, and generally decides within 36 hours whether or not the person who has been arrested should be charged with committing a crime.

If the prosecutor decides not to file charges, the arrested person is released from custody — there are no charges filed, no bail posted, and no trial. This is particularly common in response to mass protests, when protesters are sometimes arrested and held for 36 hours before being released.

If the prosecutor does decide to charge the person with a crime, the defendant will appear before a judge, usually within 48 hours of arrest. During that hearing, the judge will decide what conditions will be required for a person to be released while they wait for trial. Those conditions sometimes include a monetary amount a person must pay to “guarantee” that they will appear later for their trial. That amount is called “cash bail.”

Those who can afford to pay bail go home, but those who can’t afford bail are jailed until their trial, despite being legally innocent.

Once a person reaches their trial date — which might come weeks, months, or even years after their arrest — a judge and/or jury will decide whether the defendant is guilty of the crime they’re accused of. If the jury finds a defendant guilty, they will then decide on their sentence. 

What happens if a person can’t afford bail? 

If a person cannot afford to pay the bail amount set by the judge, they will remain in jail until they plead guilty or until their trial is completed and a judge or jury renders a verdict on their charges. 

Many people who cannot afford bail can spend days, weeks, or even months in jail waiting for their trial.  During that time, people lose jobs, housing, and even custody of children.

The threat of prolonged detention, and all the consequences that come with it, often pressures defendants to plead guilty to a lesser charge even if they’re innocent, to shorten the amount of time they spend in jail. In fact, 92% of cases nationwide are resolved via plea bargain, meaning only 8% of people charged with crimes will ever defend themselves in court.

What are Minnesota jails like? 

Each county in Minnesota has a jail that houses people who have been accused of a crime and are being held until their trial begins.

On average, 66% of people held in jails are awaiting trial and have not yet even had a chance to prove their innocence.

While the overall jail population in Minnesota has declined since its peak in 2005, the number of people held pre-trial actually increased by 10% between 2005 and 2015. 

Jails in Minnesota, like those across the country, are built for short-term stays. Most of them don’t have a yard or any outdoor area for recreation. Most jails in Minnesota don’t allow in-person visits, and the video call options offered to arrestees are incredibly expensive. Jails typically do not offer educational programming or access to classes or libraries. The units are packed with as many people as possible, offering little to no privacy.

Nationwide, the average time someone spends in jail is 10-20 days for those being held pre-trial, but that number can range into months. 

How are jails different from prisons? 

In Minnesota, prisons are called “correctional facilities.” They are built to house people who have been charged and convicted of a crime with a sentence of more than a year.

They have outdoor yards that people can access and a dedicated medical area with full-time medical staff. While correctional facilities are supposed to help “rehabilitate” people, rather than just detain them for short periods of time, they still use harmful practices like solitary confinement to punish incarcerated people.