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[ijmorlan]

This is the kind of thing that puts the administration of justice into disrepute. Somebody who goes around setting fires clearly needs to be locked up. Now, it’s so weird and pointless a crime that I’m inclined to say they should be locked up in a mental ward, not in a jail, but they have no business being out on the street. The way I see it, either they are insane and the choice to be kept in the mental ward has to be made for them; or they’re not insane. If they are not insane, either they are unrepentant and need to be kept locked up; or they are repentant and will therefore understand and accept that we won’t let them out immediately.

Oh come on, this is basic civics. Yes, someone proven guilty of the crime of multiple arson of course deserves to be locked up, and will be. That is different from receiving bail. Innocent until proven guilty is a fundamental tenant of our legal system. The only reason to deny bail is if the person can be demonstrated to be an active risk to the safety of the community, or that they are a flight risk, even with bail conditions. But bail has nothing to do with whether a guilty person should be punished.

I’m not talking about punishment. I’m talking about someone who is obviously a danger to the community being kept in a safe and secure location, as much for their own protection as that of everyone else.

This is not a situation in which there is any real doubt as to who the perpetrator is, either; the legal guilt (and therefore liability for penalty) hasn’t been determined, but their defense isn’t going to be “you got the wrong guy”.

Of course, I also have the weird belief that trials should happen fairly promptly after the event, thus shortening the period of pre-trial detention.

Now I suppose that it actually is possible that it has been established that the chance of further offenses by this person in the immediate future is very low, in which case I withdraw my statement: bail is fine in this hypothetical. But can we at least agree that if they set another fire they should be locked up until after the trial?