--- title: Watch John Oliver Slam the U.S. Bail System on 'Last Week Tonight' description: American T.V. shows feature armed bounty hunters pursuing people for sport, and that's a problem worthy of John Oliver's attention. canonical: https://time.com/3912053/john-oliver-recap-bail-bonds-last-week-tonight/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-08T07:10:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T08:29:22.583Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Watch John Oliver Slam the U.S. Bail System og:description: Is it right to lock up nonviolent offenders just because they can't pay bail? og:url: https://time.com/3912053/john-oliver-recap-bail-bonds-last-week-tonight/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch John Oliver Slam the U.S. Bail System twitter:description: Is it right to lock up nonviolent offenders just because they can't pay bail? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch John Oliver Slam the Unfairness of the U.S. Bail System by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jun 8, 2015 7:10 AM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jun 8, 2015 7:10 AM UTC Bail is an integral part of the U.S. justice system. As anyone who has watched a single episode of _Law & Order_ can tell you, bail is when you get charged with a non-violent crime and the court charges you a sum of money as bond. If you have money, you pay your bail and go home to await trial. The problem is when people don’t have the financial resources for bail and, as John Oliver pointed out on the latest _Last Week Tonight_, many nonviolent offenders are sitting in jail simply because they can’t afford to pay bail. And yet, Americans are so comfortable with the bail system that television shows feature armed bounty hunters pursuing people for sport, and that’s a problem worthy of John Oliver’s attention. Watch the clip for more. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3912053/john-oliver-recap-bail-bonds-last-week-tonight/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3912053/john-oliver-recap-bail-bonds-last-week-tonight/"},"headline":"Watch John Oliver Slam the Unfairness of the U.S. Bail System","datePublished":"2015-06-08T07:10:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:29:22.583Z","description":"Nonviolent offenders are filling up jails for no reason besides being unable to pay bail: Is that desirable?","url":"https://time.com/3912053/john-oliver-recap-bail-bonds-last-week-tonight/","keywords":["Television","Jail","John Oliver","Last Week Tonight"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3912053/john-oliver-recap-bail-bonds-last-week-tonight/","name":"Watch John Oliver Slam the Unfairness of the U.S. Bail System"}}]}] ```