If one was to identify the most restrictive regime in the world when it comes to law and order, one would be hard pressed to ignore the situation in Victoria. Victoria, a state of Australia, a country founded on immigration of English criminals. Clearly, this has required a different view of bail requirements than other countries.
But still, having inherited an English Common Law system, bail was never meant to be a punishment, but rather was meant to be a mechanism for ensuring that an accused turned up to court.
Unfortunately for criminals in Victoria, bail become politicized after the Bourke Street massacre which involved an accused who had been granted bail in a situation where it was arguable it should have been denied.
So the government overreacted and increased the bail threshold for a list of common charges to the same threshold that exited for murder. Which basically led to drug addicts being routinely refused bail on shop-theft charges until recently an aboriginal woman died in custody after being charged with shop-theft.
The reaction has turned political opinion, and hopefully will lead to reasonable bail laws in Victoria.