Voices From Inside the System
‘The Real Problem Lies With Bail Being Used as a Form of Punishment’
Bail bondsman Topo Padilla works in a $3 billion industry where Black and Hispanic detainees make up nearly half of the jail population
Voices From Inside the System is a new GEN series where we interview people who have had firsthand experience in industries with especially fraught histories of systemic racism. We asked our subjects to think deeply about the role they played and the work they did. We asked them why they stayed or why they left, how they might be complicit, or if they thought they — or anyone — could fundamentally change the system.
Topo Padilla, 55, is a bail bondsman and president of the Golden State Bail Agents Association. Bail bonds are a $3 billion industry, and two-thirds of the jail population are pre-trial detainees. The share of people who needed to post bail in order to avoid pre-trial detention increased from 53% in 1990 to 72% in 2009; the average cost of bail also doubled in that same time period. In 2018, the population of Black detainees in jail was 39%, compared to 13% of the larger population. Padilla spoke with journalist Haley Cohen Gilliland about his work.
