President Trump on Monday signed an executive order aimed at limiting the ability of judges to set bail for defendants, claiming that the measures have hurt public safety.

“Any street, all over the country,” Mr. Trump said. “Cashless bail, we’re ending it.”

Bail is a guarantee, sometimes in the form of cash, that a defendant posts after arraignment. New York, like some other states, has revised its bail laws so that fewer people wind up in jail because they could not afford to post bail.

Mr. Trump, in referring to “cashless bail,” appears to mean policies in which criminal defendants are not required to post bail when they face lesser charges.

Studies have shown that such policies have not led to an increase in crime. But conservative lawmakers and media figures have nonetheless used them to portray Democrats as soft on crime. The bail bond industry, which puts up bail money for defendants in exchange for a fee, has also opposed changes.

Here’s what you need to know about how bail works.

What is cash bail?

In criminal court, judges generally have three options when someone accused of a crime comes before them to be formally charged at arraignment. They can release the defendant with the promise that he or she will return for subsequent hearings and trial; order them detained; or release them on bail.

When the bail option is chosen, a defendant, in essence, gives a cash guarantee in exchange for freedom pending a trial. The money is returned when a case is concluded. Judges may require some defendants, whether they post bail or not, to wear an ankle monitor or check in with a pretrial officer while awaiting trial.

What’s the argument against it?

Activists have long argued that bail keeps people locked up awaiting trial for no reason other than poverty and forces poor families to spend what little money they have on bail bond fees.

People who are detained may lose jobs, housing and the ability to take care of their families and are more easily coerced into pleading guilty. A poor defendant, the argument goes, is no more dangerous than one who can afford to put up bail.

Defendants who spend even a short time in pretrial detention are more likely to be arrested again, compared with those who do not, some research has suggested.

Some people released before trial do commit new crimes, but that is true whether or not they have paid a bond.

Mr. Trump on Monday said activists “thought it was discriminatory to make people put up money, because they just killed three people lying on a street.”

How have states moved to end cash bail?

Starting in the late 2010s, many states started to take a hard look at bail laws. New Jersey, Illinois and Alaska were among the leaders in eliminating bail for many criminal cases.

In 2019, New York passed a similar law. The measure meant that judges would not be able to require bail for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, like assault without serious injury and burglary.

The impetus for change in New York was the case of Kalief Browder, a Bronx teenager who spent three years on Rikers Island while he awaited trial, accused of stealing a backpack. The case was eventually dismissed, and Mr. Browder later killed himself at his parents’ home.

Lawsuits across the country have forced courts to at least consider a defendant’s ability to pay before setting bail, rather than relying on a set amount for every offense.

“They have a great cashless bail,” Mr. Trump said of Illinois. “You don’t even have to go to court sometimes.”

Why is there opposition to changes in bail law?

Changes in bail laws led to widespread backlash, particularly as violent crime rose early in the coronavirus pandemic. But there was little evidence that the changes were responsible for the uptick in violence.

Since New York’s bail laws were revised, the percentage of people in New York City who have been rearrested while they awaited trial has been relatively flat, around 5 percent each month, according to data from the New York City Criminal Justice Agency.

The majority of those who are rearrested tend to be picked up on misdemeanors. In May 2025, less than 1 percent of those who awaited trial on bail were rearrested for violent felonies.

But a small number of defendants released in accordance with the revised bail laws have committed acts of violence, leading to intense attention from conservative news outlets.

A slight increase in property crime during the pandemic, particularly repeated raids on retail outlets, also fueled anger with New York’s new bail law. Law enforcement officials said the law made it harder to keep serial shoplifters behind bars.

While there aren’t enough repeat offenders to affect the data, their activities affect the livelihoods of small-business owners, have an impact on perception of public safety and give critics of the bail policies ammunition.

In response to the fury, some states have rolled back earlier changes, including in New York, where in 2022 Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a law that allowed judges to set bail even for minor offenses like shoplifting. Further changes in New York passed in 2023.

Can you kill someone and be out on bail?

On Monday, President Trump claimed without evidence that defendants charged with murder have been allowed to roam free after not posting bail.

“They kill people, and they get out,” Mr. Trump said. “Cashless bail.”

But defendants charged with murder are generally not eligible to be released pending trial, which is true both in states and jurisdictions that have limited bail and those that haven’t.

What have been the effects on crime?

“Every place in the country where you have no cash bail is a disaster,” Mr. Trump said in a news conference earlier this month, where he announced that he was deploying federal forces to stop crime in Washington, D.C. “That’s what started the problem in New York, and they don’t change it.”

On Monday, Mr. Trump said the introduction of no cash bail is “when the big crime in this country started.”

But despite Mr. Trump’s claims, there is little evidence that changes in bail laws have led to an increase in crime.

Using data from 2015 through 2021, the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit think tank, studied 22 cities that had changed bail laws, comparing them with 11 cities that had not. The report found “no statistically significant relationship between bail reform and crime rates.”

After a reduction in the use of bail for misdemeanors following a lawsuit in Houston, there were fewer arrests and rearrests in surrounding Harris County, fewer convictions and millions of dollars in taxpayer savings, according to a report by the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law. Arrests for felony offenses rose, the report said.

In New Jersey, where bail was practically eliminated in 2017, there has been no increase in gun violence since the changes were instituted, according to a 2024 study from researchers at Drexel University and Boston University.

Shaila Dewan contributed reporting.