AUSTIN, TX – The Texas House passed Senate Bill 9 (S.B. 9) on Monday, a sweeping bail reform measure that civil rights groups say will deepen existing injustices in the state’s pretrial system and punish people simply for being poor.
The ACLU of Texas issued a strong statement opposing the bill, warning that it entrenches a two-tiered system of justice and undermines due process by overriding judicial discretion and restricting community-based support efforts.
Nick Hudson, senior policy and advocacy strategist at the ACLU of Texas, condemned the legislation, saying, “S.B. 9 further cements a two-tiered system of justice in Texas — one for the wealthy and one for everyone else. In certain cases, it strips judges of their authority and hands prosecutors unchecked power to jail people even after a court has deemed them safe for release.”
According to Hudson, the bill forces judges to impose cash bail for a wide range of offenses, including some misdemeanors, regardless of a person’s risk of flight or threat to public safety.
“This bill violates basic principles of due process, keeps poor people in jail for being poor, and hands prosecutors a veto over judicial decisions. Texas families deserve reforms rooted in evidence, fairness, and public safety instead of fear.”
The legislation, authored by Sen. Joan Huffman, imposes mandatory cash bail for an expanded list of charges and curtails the ability of judges and magistrates to consider personal bonds. It also grants prosecutors the right to appeal bail determinations they consider too lenient, while significantly expanding reporting requirements for charitable bail organizations and allowing sheriffs to suspend their operations.
Critics say this provision appears designed to suppress the work of groups that help release low-income defendants who would otherwise remain incarcerated pretrial.
These legislative changes come amid a statewide pretrial system already plagued by inequity and inefficiency. According to the ACLU of Texas’s Bail in Texas policy brief released in January 2025, over 70 percent of Texas’ jail population is being held pretrial, amounting to more than 53,000 people on any given day.
The vast majority are legally presumed innocent and are in jail only because they cannot afford to pay the bail amount set by the court. The costs to taxpayers are staggering, estimated at $1.2 billion annually to detain people who, if not for their poverty, would be free.
The roots of the bail system in Texas, as the ACLU document explains, have long shifted away from assessing safety and risk. Instead, release decisions are made based on financial resources, with almost 90 percent of bail decisions involving a cash requirement. This means those who can afford to buy their freedom walk free, while others remain behind bars for weeks, months, or even years awaiting trial. And despite the intended purpose of bail — to ensure court appearance — research consistently shows that money bail does not improve public safety or appearance rates. In fact, pretrial detention, especially for short periods, has been linked to higher recidivism and worse life outcomes. One 2017 study cited by the ACLU found that even a few days in jail increased the likelihood of rearrest, disrupted employment, and destabilized families.
S.B. 9 builds on a wave of bail restrictions passed in previous sessions, expanding the list of offenses ineligible for personal bonds and mandating bail for people charged while on parole, facing certain felony charges, or under an immigration detainer. These provisions reflect a broader punitive shift in Texas pretrial law, replacing individualized assessment with inflexible mandates. The bill also prohibits magistrates from modifying bond amounts set by district court judges and allows prosecutors to appeal bail decisions they deem too low — even if the judge has already determined the defendant poses no danger.
In addition to restricting judicial discretion, S.B. 9 targets charitable bail funds, which have increasingly stepped in to assist poor Texans with pretrial release. Under the bill, these organizations will be required to submit detailed monthly reports to the Office of Court Administration, listing each defendant they’ve supported, the amount of bail posted, case numbers, and any failure-to-appear data. If sheriffs suspect a violation, they may suspend these organizations for up to a year — even without a court finding. The ACLU warns that these provisions are aimed at chilling community-led efforts to support pretrial release and increase accountability in a system that already favors wealth over fairness.
The bill’s passage comes despite a growing body of research showing that unnecessary pretrial detention does not increase public safety and, in many cases, makes communities less safe.
The ACLU brief cites a Harris County study showing that people detained pretrial are significantly more likely to commit new offenses after release, with a 30 percent increase in new felony charges and a 20 percent increase in new misdemeanors.
Other studies referenced in the brief found that short jail stays — even just two to three days — can lead to job loss, housing instability, increased poverty, and long-term damage to individuals and families. Detained individuals are more likely to plead guilty just to get out of jail, even when they are innocent.
The harms of pretrial detention disproportionately affect Black, brown, and low-income communities. Black Texans make up about 11 percent of the state’s population but 28 percent of the state’s jail population. Black and Latinx defendants are consistently given higher bail amounts and are less likely to be released on nonfinancial conditions.
The ACLU and other advocates argue that S.B. 9 will only worsen these racial disparities, locking more people up simply because they cannot pay.
S.B. 9 is now headed to the governor’s desk, and, unless vetoed, it is set to take effect on September 1, 2025. The ACLU of Texas is urging lawmakers and the public to demand a system based on safety, not wealth.
In their January brief, the organization laid out seven policy recommendations that would reduce unnecessary incarceration, save public funds, and make the pretrial system more rational and humane. These include establishing a presumption of release, ensuring counsel at first appearance, limiting arrests for fine-only offenses, expanding citations in lieu of arrest, and increasing transparency in magistration and bail data.
As the bill awaits final approval, Hudson issued a final warning: “No one should sit in jail simply because they can’t afford to pay. This legislation codifies a cruel and inefficient system. If we want justice to mean something in Texas, we have to start by ensuring that freedom is not for sale.”
