More than 1,000 people locked up in Philadelphia jails because they didn't pay bail may have an opportunity for release before trial now that city prosecutors will stop seeking monetary payments for low-level crimes.
It's hard to tell how many would be successful, but Mark Houldin of the Defender Association of Philadelphia says inmates have already started asking and his organization is looking into the matter.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner says that not only will his office stop seeking cash bail in a number of misdemeanors and non-violent felonies, but that the policy would also apply if pretrial inmates jailed for those crimes could get their cases in front of a judge.