Discriminatory bail conditions

Inability to furnish pecuniary guarantees or to find someone willing to do so on their behalf sometimes prevents accused persons from being released from custody pending or during criminal proceedings against them. Imprisonment pending or during trial causes a number of hardships, some of which hit with particular severity precisely those so imprisoned because they lack financial means. Imprisonment may cause loss of income; it carries with it a social stigma; and the person imprisoned may lose his job as a result of this stigma or due to economic factors operating on his employer. If the imprisoned person is a breadwinner, the family also suffers from his loss of income or occupation.

Other hardships result from imprisonment during or pending trial: the expense and difficulty of defence is increased, since the accused's counsel has to visit him, instead of the reverse; facilities in prison for consultation between counsel and accused may not be such as to assure that such consultations are adequate and secret; the accused is unable to seek evidence personally; his anxiety is increased by unfamiliar surroundings, by the absence of his relatives and friends and by his own absence from his family; he may be subject to squalor, enforced idleness and criminalizing influences while under detention.