Some Indiana Republicans want to change the state constitution to allow judges to withhold bail entirely for a lot more people.
The current constitution requires judges to offer bail except when a person is charged with murder or treason.
A proposed constitutional amendment, SJR 1, would expand that to allow bail to be withheld for any crime – as long as the person is a “substantial risk to the public.”
Courtney Curtis is the assistant executive director of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council. She said judges should have the freedom to make individual decisions about individual defendants.
“If you limit it to a certain number of crimes, then you run the risk of not including folks that you’d want to include and including some folks that you’d rather not,” Curtis said.