Editorial: The welcome but glacial dismantling of California’s bail system
5 years, 3 months ago

Editorial: The welcome but glacial dismantling of California’s bail system

LA Times  

Although California’s historic move to eliminate money bail is on hold pending a voter referendum in just under a year, good work by forward-looking attorneys and activists is helping to ensure a more just criminal justice system now. They won over lawmakers and the governor more than a year ago with SB 10; if it takes effect following a statewide vote next November, the bill will end the system under which people arrested and accused of crimes can gain their release from jail before trial by depositing cash with the court or — as is more often the case — paying a nonrefundable fee to a bail bond agency. They speak of families that impoverish themselves to put up bail money or, more often, to try to make ends meet without their chief breadwinner because he or she is in jail pending trial, unable to pay a bail bondsman. Pretrial justice requires proceeding simultaneously on two fronts — ratification of the bail elimination bill, and better justice before trial for defendants with or without money.

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History of this topic

Editorial: California blew it on bail reform. Now Illinois is showing it works
10 months, 1 week ago

Editorial: California blew it on bail reform. Now Illinois is showing it works

LA Times  

California lawmakers passed a bill eliminating money bail in 2018, but voters overturned the important reform in tumultuous 2020 after a fear-stoking referendum campaign led by the bail bond industry. Opinion Ending Cash Bail On Oct. 1 Los Angeles County transitions to a new way of administering pre-arraignment justice that doesn’t use cash bail for most crimes. The biggest losers …

Editorial: L.A. County cities should stop fighting the end of cash bail. It’s working
1 year ago

Editorial: L.A. County cities should stop fighting the end of cash bail. It’s working

LA Times  

The Bail Boys Bail Bonds in Los Angeles in 2023. L.A. Superior Court and law enforcement data show that a program eliminating money bail and allowing defendants to go home between arrest and arraignment is working well. The end of money bail for most nonviolent and nonserious crimes hasn’t increased repeat arrests or court no-shows, according to Los Angeles Superior …

Editorial: L.A. court’s refreshing candor on money bail: It doesn’t make us safer
1 year, 4 months ago

Editorial: L.A. court’s refreshing candor on money bail: It doesn’t make us safer

LA Times  

The Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center is the headquarters of the criminal branch of the Los Angeles Superior court, led by Presiding Judge Samantha P. Jessner. The court’s pre-arraignment release protocol eliminates money bail for low-level crimes. It was refreshing to hear Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge Samantha P. Jessner’s spirited and factual defense last week of the …

Editorial: How the court’s bail reform plan could go wrong. How to keep it going right
1 year, 5 months ago

Editorial: How the court’s bail reform plan could go wrong. How to keep it going right

LA Times  

Gotham Bail Bonds and Bad Boys Bail Bonds in Los Angeles, near Men’s Central Jail. A new pretrial protocol eliminates money bail for most people in Los Angeles County between their arrest and their arraignment, beginning Oct. 1, 2023. Instead, people accused of less serious and nonviolent crimes will be cited or booked and released or briefly held while a …

Editorial: Leaders aren’t leading on L.A. bail reform
1 year, 6 months ago

Editorial: Leaders aren’t leading on L.A. bail reform

LA Times  

Pedestrians walk past Bail HotLine Bail Bonds near the Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles on Sept. 25. Eliminating money bail has been a front-burner issue in Los Angeles County ever since the 2012 district attorney campaign when reform advocates compelled candidates to discuss the topic at debates. What L.A. needs now, as the court’s new pre-arraignment release program begins …

Opinion: As judges, we’ve made thousands of bail decisions. Here’s the truth about detention and public safety
1 year, 6 months ago

Opinion: As judges, we’ve made thousands of bail decisions. Here’s the truth about detention and public safety

LA Times  

Often when judges determine that a person accused of a crime can safely be released from jail and return to court when directed, they face criticism for “letting the accused out” by reducing monetary bail or “allowing” the accused to bail at all. As retired and current California trial court judges with more than 90 years of collective experience, we …

Editorial: Trump should not have to pay bail
1 year, 7 months ago

Editorial: Trump should not have to pay bail

LA Times  

Former President Trump, shown Aug. 3 after pleading not guilty in a Washington, D.C., courtroom on federal conspiracy charges, is expected to be booked Thursday in Atlanta on racketeering and other counts related to an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Opinion Editorial: California continues to show the nation the absurdity and unfairness of money bail Bail was …

Editorial: L.A.’s bail reform is an improvement, but falls short of what Illinois has done
1 year, 8 months ago

Editorial: L.A.’s bail reform is an improvement, but falls short of what Illinois has done

LA Times  

Bad Boys Bail Bonds is one of several bail agents across from the Los Angeles County Jail. On July 18, the same day the Los Angeles County Superior Court unveiled its plan to sharply scale back the use of cash bail in L.A. County, the Illinois Supreme Court went further, and better. In its ruling, the Illinois court’s majority demolished …

Editorial: 50 Cent and prosecutors are wrong about cash bail. L.A. courts get it right
1 year, 8 months ago

Editorial: 50 Cent and prosecutors are wrong about cash bail. L.A. courts get it right

LA Times  

L.A. County residents who are unable to pay bail after arrest but before seeing a judge are jailed. A new Los Angeles Superior Court bail schedule will change the frequently pointless practice. The Los Angeles Superior Court unveiled a new protocol that will eliminate money bail for a majority of people arrested in L.A. County, beginning in October. For higher …

Editorial: Court brings back sanity, and the Constitution, in Los Angeles bail ruling
1 year, 10 months ago

Editorial: Court brings back sanity, and the Constitution, in Los Angeles bail ruling

LA Times  

Los Angeles County’s Men’s Central Jail, pictured in 2019, is too dangerous to operate but remains open and full in part because officials continue to lock up people solely because they cannot afford bail. Zero-dollar bail is back for most people arrested in Los Angeles County for nonviolent crimes, after a Superior Court judge ruled that jailing people just because …

Editorial: Presumed guilty! The toxic cost of money bail
2 years ago

Editorial: Presumed guilty! The toxic cost of money bail

LA Times  

Nearly half the people in Men’s Central Jail, and almost everyone in the region’s police jails, have not been convicted of anything. L.A.’s brief period of more perfect justice ended last year when the Los Angeles Superior Court rescinded its emergency zero-dollar bail policy. Last November, several people who were stuck in jail because they couldn’t pay bail, along with …

Criminal justice panel says California should pay restitution to victims, ban some traffic stops
2 years, 3 months ago

Criminal justice panel says California should pay restitution to victims, ban some traffic stops

LA Times  

Bryant Mangum at his home in August 2021 in Los Angeles. California should set up a taxpayer-funded restitution system for crime victims, curtail the use of money bail and limit when cops can make traffic stops that disproportionately affect Black and Latino drivers, according to recommendations from a criminal justice panel that advises state lawmakers. Romano said the state often …

Editorial: California still violates the Constitution on bail
2 years, 4 months ago

Editorial: California still violates the Constitution on bail

LA Times  

Bad Boys Bail Bonds, across the street from the Los Angeles County Jail, pictured in 2018. Yet the analysis by the UC Berkeley School of Law’s Policy Advocacy Clinic and UCLA School of Law’s Criminal Justice Program shows that after Humphrey, the bail amounts that judges order have remained steady — exactly the opposite one should expect after a ruling …

California stalls scaled down bail reform after year’s delay
2 years, 6 months ago

California stalls scaled down bail reform after year’s delay

Associated Press  

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California lawmakers balked at a scaled-back attempt at reforming the state’s cash bail system Wednesday, a year after a more expansive effort also stalled amid headlines over a gruesome killing. Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said requiring the return of most of that money in such circumstances “represents a critical step forward in securing Californians’ rights to the …

Don’t blame bail reform for higher crime, NYC watchdog says
3 years ago

Don’t blame bail reform for higher crime, NYC watchdog says

Associated Press  

NEW YORK — Two years ago, New York joined a growing number of states scaling back the use of cash bail for criminal defendants. The report’s release comes as some New York officials have considered rolling back bail reforms, which were enacted as part of an effort to address the inequity of poor people being jailed because they couldn’t afford …

Editorial: ‘Zero bail’ and release from jail are not the same thing
3 years, 1 month ago

Editorial: ‘Zero bail’ and release from jail are not the same thing

LA Times  

Violent crime is up in California and around the nation, and many prosecutors, politicians and police officials place the blame — incorrectly — on so-called “zero-bail” policies and other changes to the traditional money bail system. Some trial-level courts, including the Los Angeles County Superior Court, adopted their own COVID emergency bail measures for misdemeanors and low-level felonies that remain …

Editorial: Yes, there are problems with Prop. 47 and $0 bail. Just not what you think
3 years, 3 months ago

Editorial: Yes, there are problems with Prop. 47 and $0 bail. Just not what you think

LA Times  

It wasn’t Los Angeles police union leader Jamie McBride’s warning to visitors to stay out of town during the holidays that was so startling, or his claim that his more than 9,500 police department colleagues can’t protect them. There seems to be an enduring hunger to blame any crime increases on criminal justice reforms like Proposition 47 and zero-dollar bail …

Latest California bail reform effort dies for this year
3 years, 6 months ago

Latest California bail reform effort dies for this year

Associated Press  

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A parolee’s arrest in a killing after he’d been released without bail helped torpedo the California Legislature’s latest attempt to reform the cash bail system for this year, the bill’s author said Thursday. El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson, the district attorneys association’s president, said lawmakers supporting changes to the bail system are “expressing sympathy toward …

California top court strikes blow against cash bail
4 years ago

California top court strikes blow against cash bail

Al Jazeera  

San Francisco, California, United States — The top court in California last week issued a ruling that advocates for criminal justice reform in the United States are calling a “landmark victory” for efforts to confront racial and economic inequities. “The common practice of conditioning freedom solely on whether an arrestee can afford bail is unconstitutional.” The decision comes as the …

Editorial: Court takes a giant step on bail, but more work is needed
4 years ago

Editorial: Court takes a giant step on bail, but more work is needed

LA Times  

Bad Boys Bail Bonds is across the street from the Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles. The California Supreme Court’s ruling Thursday sharply limiting the use of money bail represents an important and long overdue stride toward more equal justice, but it leaves much unfixed in a still-flawed portion of the criminal justice process. But money bail — a …

California’s top court ends cash bail for some defendants who can’t afford it
4 years ago

California’s top court ends cash bail for some defendants who can’t afford it

LA Times  

For years, California legislators and judges have tried to reform the state’s money bail system to reduce discrimination against the poor. “Other conditions of release — such as electronic monitoring, regular check-ins with a pretrial case manager, community housing or shelter, and drug and alcohol treatment — can in many cases protect public and victim safety as well as assure …

Ending cash bail abolishes penalty on poverty, advocates say
4 years, 1 month ago

Ending cash bail abolishes penalty on poverty, advocates say

Associated Press  

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — An overhaul of Illinois’ approach to public safety, defending criminal defendants’ rights and keeping would-be rogue police officers in line won legislative approval in January and was lauded as a damaging blow to injustice in crime and punishment. A response to last spring’s civil unrest over the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other people of …

California retains cash bail, rejects punishment rollbacks
4 years, 4 months ago

California retains cash bail, rejects punishment rollbacks

Associated Press  

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Fresh from months of protests over the police killings of people of color and national angst over racial inequities in the criminal justice system, California voters rejected an effort to roll back reforms targeting mass incarceration and reinstate tougher criminal penalties. 20 would tackle violent crime and retail theft.” Voters saw a distinction between the proposed criminal …

Endorsement: Yes on Proposition 25 to end bail and the poverty penalty
4 years, 6 months ago

Endorsement: Yes on Proposition 25 to end bail and the poverty penalty

LA Times  

There is something repugnant, and corrosive to our collective notion of justice, about allowing people without money to stay locked up in jail while others, accused of the same crimes but with money to spend, can buy their way out. California has been trying to rid itself of money bail for decades, but every effort has been turned back by …

Editorial: No, criminals aren’t rampaging across California because of our zero-dollar bail policy
4 years, 10 months ago

Editorial: No, criminals aren’t rampaging across California because of our zero-dollar bail policy

LA Times  

Todd Spitzer is one of many law enforcement leaders to mischaracterize emergency orders that have helped ease the spread of the coronavirus in California jails and prisons. The latest object of the law enforcement establishment’s scorn and anxiety is the state Judicial Council’s zero-dollar bail order. But just in case there was any lingering doubt, an April 29 Court of …

Editorial: A $0 bail for Californians accused of nonviolent crimes? That’s exactly the right amount
4 years, 11 months ago

Editorial: A $0 bail for Californians accused of nonviolent crimes? That’s exactly the right amount

LA Times  

California’s judicial leaders acted wisely when they reset bail amounts temporarily to $0 for people accused of misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies. Refusing to jail people accused but not convicted of lower-level crimes could yet stave off the horrific scenes now playing out in places such as Chicago’s Cook County jail, which has the largest concentration of infected Americans; New York’s …

Column: Facing eradication, the bail industry gears up to mislead the public about its value
5 years, 5 months ago

Column: Facing eradication, the bail industry gears up to mislead the public about its value

LA Times  

Few businesses enjoy a reputation for providing a public service as inflated as the bail bond industry. “The most effective form of release in terms of ensuring appearance at court were releases on a financially secured bail bond,” the American Bail Coalition, the industry’s trade group, says on its website. “Were SB 10 to become law, it would practically mean …

California’s historic overhaul of cash bail is now on hold, pending a 2020 referendum
6 years, 2 months ago

California’s historic overhaul of cash bail is now on hold, pending a 2020 referendum

LA Times  

A landmark law to abolish California’s money bail system has been put on hold until voters decide its fate in November 2020 after elections officials on Wednesday certified a statewide referendum backed by a coalition of bail industry associations. At least 11 counties are employing roughly 40 different pilot pretrial programs to reduce the number of people cycling in and …

California’s chief justice says bail overhaul will continue with or without the new law
6 years, 3 months ago

California’s chief justice says bail overhaul will continue with or without the new law

LA Times  

California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye on Tuesday defended a landmark new state law abolishing money bail, saying it was crafted to ensure courts “do not judge a person based on the size of their wallet or what they have access to in someone else’s wallet.” In an annual meeting with reporters in San Francisco, the chief justice said the state’s …

California's Bail Overhaul May Do More Harm Than Good, Reformers Say
6 years, 5 months ago

California's Bail Overhaul May Do More Harm Than Good, Reformers Say

NPR  

California's Bail Overhaul May Do More Harm Than Good, Reformers Say Enlarge this image toggle caption Hector Mata/AP Hector Mata/AP Criminal justice reformers have long called the U.S. courts system's reliance on money bail unjust: The wealthy, they argue, can simply buy their pretrial freedom, while the poor are stuck behind bars or get pressured into taking a plea deal. …

California has ended money bail. Who will bail out the industry?
6 years, 6 months ago

California has ended money bail. Who will bail out the industry?

LA Times  

The landmark legislation that Gov. Under the new system, many people will be let go solely on a promise to return to court, while others could be placed on monitoring devices or remain incarcerated without any possibility of release under a practice known as “preventive detention.” The American Bail Coalition, along with bail lobbying and crime victims groups, have roughly …

Why The ACLU Opposes California's Decision To Eliminate Cash Bail
6 years, 7 months ago

Why The ACLU Opposes California's Decision To Eliminate Cash Bail

NPR  

Why The ACLU Opposes California's Decision To Eliminate Cash Bail NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Udi Ofer, deputy national political director of the ACLU and director of the ACLU's Campaign for Smart Justice, about California's decision to eliminate cash bail. Governor Jerry Brown signed the law last night after criminal justice reform groups spent years working to overhaul the cash …

Proposal to radically overhaul California’s bail system advances in Legislature
6 years, 7 months ago

Proposal to radically overhaul California’s bail system advances in Legislature

LA Times  

State Sen. Bob Hertzberg, right, and Assemblyman Rob Bonta, left, celebrate Thursday during a news conference on the bill they co-wrote to end money bail. “It has been really challenging making this fundamental sea change in the criminal justice system in California.” Hertzberg later pushed back against criticism of the bill, saying it would dramatically transform a pretrial system that …

Column: Years in the making, the political showdown has finally arrived over California’s money bail system
6 years, 7 months ago

Column: Years in the making, the political showdown has finally arrived over California’s money bail system

LA Times  

Sacramento Bureau Chief With so many battles being waged over these final weeks of the California Legislature’s session — contentious issues including wildfire liability rules and net neutrality — a crowd of Sacramento political watchers last week seemed surprised by the topic that’s on the top of the to-do list for legislative leaders. “It’s something I consider to be not …

Editorial: Money bail punishes the poor and makes a mockery of California’s justice system
6 years, 9 months ago

Editorial: Money bail punishes the poor and makes a mockery of California’s justice system

LA Times  

Low-risk criminal defendants could get out of jail before trial by depositing 10% of their bail amount with the court instead of with a private bond agency, under a bill approved by the state Senate. California’s bail system punishes the poverty-stricken criminal defendant by presenting this choice: Stay locked up for months pending trial and risk losing your job, your …

This city just took a major step to reform its oppressive and inhumane bail system
7 years, 1 month ago

This city just took a major step to reform its oppressive and inhumane bail system

Salon  

Atlanta's City Council just unanimously voted and adopted a move to reform Atlanta’s cash bail system, which frequently targets, jails and ultimately upends the lives of its poorest citizens for some of the most minor and non-violent misdemeanors. To paint a picture of just how morally dubious the city's bail process was, Southern Center for Human Rights lawyer Sarah Geraghty …

Editorial: California’s bail system is broken. Risk, not wealth, should determine who can go free
7 years, 5 months ago

Editorial: California’s bail system is broken. Risk, not wealth, should determine who can go free

LA Times  

Despite the loud objections voiced by California’s bail industry, the basic principle of pretrial justice in this state ought to be clear: People who are arrested but haven’t yet gone to trial should be locked up or set free depending on how likely they are to flee or cause harm, not on whether they can afford bail. A committee of …

California’s chief justice calls for end to cash bail
7 years, 5 months ago

California’s chief justice calls for end to cash bail

Associated Press  

SAN FRANCISCO — California’s top judge said Tuesday she wants to do away with the state’s cash bail system, adding a powerful voice to criticism that it keeps poor people behind bars while wealthier suspects can pay for their freedom. The proposals are contained in a report by a group of judges that concluded the state’s cash bail system “unnecessarily …

Judicial group urges end to cash bail for criminal defendants
7 years, 5 months ago

Judicial group urges end to cash bail for criminal defendants

LA Times  

A deputy prepares a prisoner for booking at the Fresno jail. A group of 11 judges and one court executive appointed to study the issue last year by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said the current system of requiring suspects to post bail to obtain their freedom prior to trial compromises public safety. “If adopted, the reforms envisioned in these recommendations …

This group is putting women at the center of the battle to fix California’s bail system
7 years, 6 months ago

This group is putting women at the center of the battle to fix California’s bail system

LA Times  

Gina Clayton, shown with her grandmother Velma Halliburton in Venice, founded the Essie Justice Group, a support network for women whose loved ones are in prison. As a public defender in New York City, Gina Clayton realized the cash bail system used in most state courts across the country was placing a heavy burden on women. To raise support for …

Capitol Journal: Our current bail system is indefensible, but the bill that aims to fix it needs work
7 years, 8 months ago

Capitol Journal: Our current bail system is indefensible, but the bill that aims to fix it needs work

LA Times  

The bail bond system in California, as in most states, is based more on the size of your bank account than on your probable guilt or innocence, or your risk of bolting town and skipping trial. “The present bail system punishes the poor for being poor,” contends Assemblyman Rob Bonta, whose similar bill was killed by the Assembly on June …

Some say California’s bail system is broken. Here’s how two legislators plan to help fix it
7 years, 9 months ago

Some say California’s bail system is broken. Here’s how two legislators plan to help fix it

LA Times  

California’s bail system is ripe for reform, some say. Upending the system Assemblyman Rob Bonta and state Sen. Bob Hertzberg combined forces in December to unveil the California Bail Reform Act of 2017, a pair of identical bills that would eliminate the use of bail fee systems and require counties to establish their own pretrial services agencies. Most counties in …

California lawmakers want to reform a bail system they say ‘punishes the poor for being poor’
8 years, 3 months ago

California lawmakers want to reform a bail system they say ‘punishes the poor for being poor’

LA Times  

California lawmakers next year will make it a top priority to reform the system through which judges award criminal offenders bail, saying courts across the state are punishing “the poor for being poor.” Assemblyman Rob Bonta and Sen. Bob Hertzberg said they plan to fire the first salvo Monday, when lawmakers descend upon the Capitol for the start of the …

Obama administration challenges the money bail system: Can people be kept in jail just because they are poor?
8 years, 7 months ago

Obama administration challenges the money bail system: Can people be kept in jail just because they are poor?

LA Times  

President Obama’s civil rights lawyers are seeking a potentially far-reaching ruling to hold that the Constitution forbids the common practice of keeping people in jail prior to a trial, even for minor offenses, just because they are too poor to pay for bail. Civil rights lawyers describe the traditional bail system as a “wealth-based detention scheme” that has largely escaped …

Our Bail System Is Leaving Innocent People To Die In Jail Because They're Poor
8 years, 8 months ago

Our Bail System Is Leaving Innocent People To Die In Jail Because They're Poor

Huff Post  

Of the nearly 750,000 inmates confined in jails around the U.S. at any time, between 60 and 70 percent haven’t been convicted. Our investigation also speaks to the issues jails face in caring for the people in their custody, many of whom stay incarcerated thanks in large part to a bail system that requires the accused to pay to get …

Freedom for sale in California – if you can afford it
9 years, 2 months ago

Freedom for sale in California – if you can afford it

LA Times  

A sign is seen in the window of a bail bonds office across from the Hall of Justice in San Francisco on Dec. 23, 2015. The class action suit asserts that California’s bail system allows rich people to buy their freedom while awaiting trial, but assumes poor people endanger community safety and can’t be trusted to show up on their …

Worst bailout ever?: Corporate welfare meets community destruction
11 years, 6 months ago

Worst bailout ever?: Corporate welfare meets community destruction

Salon  

How well has the private prison industry done, recently? Worse for the private prison industry, a persistently falling crime rate has led to a slightly smaller prison population in 2012 for the third consecutive year. Low-level nonviolent drug offenders, who need medical help rather than a “violent crime college” like an overcrowded prison, litter the state system. Brown’s plan for …

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