In the United States, a person who has been arrested is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The burden of proof is on the prosecution; they must provide compelling evidence that shows the accused is guilty beyond reasonable doubt. In the interim, the accused may be entitled to release from jail if granted bail by the court. It is here that the bail bondsman finds work. The bail bondsmen have a standing security agreement with local court official, in which the post an irrevocable bond for the defendant to appear in court. If they fail to do so, the bondsman can legally become a bounty hunter for the state and deliver fugitives to the jurisdiction of the court to recover the money paid under the bond. Bondsmen generally charge a fee of 10% for a state charge, and 15% for a federal bond.
Vannucci spends time with the bondsmen, the defendants, and the bounty hunters, taking us inside a shadowy world that operates from dusk ‘til dawn, under the cloak of darkness. There are scenes shot on the streets of Brooklyn just a couple of years ago that belie the city’s gentrified image. Instead, what we see here is just a few of the arrests made in 2013, the year that saw Stop-and-Frisk make national headlines, as NYPD routinely targeted minorities, violating their Fourth Amendment rights, and raising the number of arrests to 900 per day.
The people Vannucci photographed are amount the underclass, chewed up and spit out by the system. As she writes, “The defendants show up at the bail bond office in the middle of the night and in the most ragged condition, tired and not having washed in days. The bondsman takes a photo of them that he will later use to identify them. Unfortunately, this first picture rarely matches their look months later, when they may be sought for re-arrest.”
An incredible gatefold opens In the middle of the book to reveal Vannucci’s portraits, with the charges and bail bond listed beneath their photo. It’s an incredible series of images that at once confronts our assumptions about crime. Without context, it’s impossible to know what is going on; instead it is simply a series of anonymous faces who stand accused and now, must pay to be free to fight their case. There’s a quietly harrowing Kafkaesque sense to these photographs that stands in contrast to the rest of the book. Here, time stands still; they are free, but for how long?
All photos: ©Clara Vannucci, NYC – Baltimore, 2012-2014 courtesy of Fabrica
Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer, curator, and brand strategist. There is nothing she adores so much as photography and books. A small part of her wishes she had a proper library, like in the game of Clue. Then she could blaze and write soliloquies to her in and out of print loves.
