Ohio's justice system is like any other. It's based on a jury of your peers and is an opportunity for a person to have his or her day in court.

But is this system flawed when it comes to setting a bond for a defendant, with some sitting behind bars because of what they don't have and not because of what they did?

This question is before the Ohio Supreme Court.

In this 21 News In-Depth report, we look at Ohio bail reform; it's benefits and challenges.

Bail reform is a hot button issue nationwide.

In many cases, the people housed in our jails remain locked up because they lack the cash to post bond and ensure their appearance in court.

Now many Judges are questioning if it's fair to punish people before they've even been convicted, just because of their financial status.

If you're convicted of a crime, there's no doubt you should do time.

But why are so many people sitting in county jails statewide, awaiting trial, sometimes for months to prove their guilt or innocence?

Justice Michael Donnelly is with the Ohio Supreme Court, "A lot of people are being held pretrial for too long a period with unreasonable bail. They can't afford it, and the studies out there show that just three days in jail and a person's life starts to deteriorate. They lose their job, they lose their ability to pay for rent, so the Chief Justice put together this task force to come up with improvements."

The Ohio Supreme Court Task Force on Bail Reform has come up with a number of recommendations, including requiring a validated risk assessment tool be available to the judge in every municipal, county, and common please court when setting bond or conditions of bond. Local rules should be amended to require counties with more than one municipal or county court to adopt a uniform bond schedule to be used by each court in the county. The criminal rules should be amended to require the presence of counsel for the defendant at the initial appearance for any offense carrying the potential penalty of confinement unless the defendant is being released on an unsecured financial condition or a personal recognizance. Pretrial services in Ohio Courts should be tailed to offer appropriate supervision and services that correspond to the level of a defendant's risk/needs.

"For a working-class person, a $10,000 bond might as well be a one-million-dollar bond," Justice Donnelly said.

Former candidate for governor and former senate minority leader, Joe Schiavoni tells 21 News, "Having money, having means shouldn't give you a better path through the criminal justice system. Bail reform should help everybody have equal access to getting out of jail when they're not dangerous or violent."

Youngstown Municipal Court Judge Carla Baldwin has already started a pretrial program that offers treatment and counseling to some in lieu of bond.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge R. Scott Krichbaum says excessive bail is unconstitutional. That's why he's created a bond schedule for the level of crime allegedly committed to ensure fairness. "That doesn't dictate what the bond is, but it sets a number. It sets an amount commensurate with the severity of the crime. Then it would allow the prosecutor and the defense lawyers to argue why you should vary that bail amount."

Judge Krichbaum says having a bond schedule has worked very well, and you no longer see the $10,000 bail from one judge for a serious crime and a $2-million crime from a different judge.

The long-time Mahoning County Judge also makes it clear that for certain crimes, where there's a risk of someone taking off to avoid appearing in court, you can deny bail altogether.

However, those in the bail bonds business say it's challenging to solve the issue when you don't know which suspects in all 88 counties of Ohio are failing to show up for court, the level of their suspected crime, and if they have a history of failing to appear.

Charles Edward Miller is the President of the Ohio Bail Agents Association (OBAA), "Once you have it there, now we can start to make better assumptions or better ideas on what we really need to do. Because right now, I don't think we have real hard numbers."

Some bail bond agents in the Mahoning Valley are concerned that bail reform could cripple the bail bonds industry at a time when law enforcement agencies already have arrest or bench warrants that haven't been served piling up, and not enough manpower to always address the issue.

"That's one of the biggest problems, when you look at all the bench warrants that are out there already, and there are thousands, not in the state, but in each county there are thousands of bench warrants that haven't been served -- where people haven't shown up in court already," Miller said.

The benefit of having licensed bail bonds agents is that, according to Miller, they don't cost taxpayers a dime, and they're not limited to where they can go to arrest a suspect. "We offer the appearance of the defendant in court. We're going to make sure that you show up. We don't get into guilt or innocence. Our role in the justice system is that the defendants accused of a crime appear in court in a timely manner."

The Ohio Supreme Court has extended their public comment time on the issue of bail reform until the end of October, and encourage people to write letters to the court making their opinion or suggestions known on the issue.

Address letters to Ohio Supreme Court, 65 S. Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215.