The use of cash bail has gotten significantly higher over the past 30 years, said Jasmine Hess of the Vera Institute of Justice.

As recently as 1990, more than two-thirds of people charged with felonies in the U.S. were released without cash bond, Hess said. In Tennessee in 2019, however, 25 counties reported they did not release any of those in jail on signature bonds instead of cash.