I've been involved in the US criminal justice system for most of my career. There has always been difficulty balancing the rights of victims and safeguarding the community, and providing the rights of due process and justice to the accused. After many years of US Supreme Court rulings tightening the rules and providing rights to criminal defendants, there has been a backlash. Those rights have now come under heavy scrutiny and some have been reversed. Bail, while not perfect, as has been said and as Sen. Kamala Harris of California has been recently pointing out, is not perfect, but some kind of reasonable bail system would help prevent the inhumane conditions in the jail shown in that photo. How bail would work in a system that is already riddled with corruption and dysfunction is totally unclear. I agree the system in the DR is in need of an overhaul, but, like many other DR issues and this one even less so, I seriously doubt that there is any political will to make it happen.