Latest California bail reform effort dies for this year

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 prisoners instead of prioritizing public safety.” Hertzberg said he will keep working for “a fair, safe and equitable bail system, free of industry greed.” The current bail system, he said, “keeps Californians locked up who pose no threat to the public and who have been convicted of no crime, simply because they cannot pay what the bail industry demands.” Hertzberg recently heavily amended his original bill after it ran into opposition in the Assembly. It follows the California Supreme Court ruling in April that judges must consider suspects’ ability to pay when they set bail, and Hertzberg said his bill implements the high court’s ruling. The American Bail Coalition said that as a practical matter, the bill would end California’s bail industry because most suspects could say they couldn’t afford to pay it. Setting up a promised court fight should the bill become law, the Golden State Bail Agents Association argued that legislators’ latest bail reform effort “is a bad faith attempt to thwart the will of the voters,” 55% of whom rejected Proposition 25 in November.