California voters rejected Proposition 25, which would have abolished the state’s cash bail system, in the Nov. 2020 election. Despite the past proposition’s failure, State Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) and Assembly Democrats want to pass a bill to eliminate bail for every defendant accused of nonviolent crimes.
“It levels the pretrial playing field by setting bail at zero for misdemeanors and low level felonies without allowing repeat offenders to game the system,” said Hertzberg of the bail reform bill.
Though 56 percent of voters rejected a similar reform in 2020, the California Supreme Court struck a blow to the use of cash bail only four months later. In March 2021, the court ruled it was unconstitutional to require defendants to remain behind bars based solely on their inability to afford bail.
The court wrote in its ruling,“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 the arrestee’s appearance at trial.”
State Republicans argue getting rid of cash bail could encourage defendants to skip their court dates. State Senator Jim Nielsen (R-Fresno) emphasized the role bail bondsmen play in assisting the police.
“Bondsmen are an extra arm of law enforcement for the citizen’s protection,” Nielsen said.
A CalMatters investigation found that at least 1,300 people have been jailed in California longer than three years without being tried or sentenced. In Los Angeles County alone, 1,350 unsentenced people have been behind bars for longer than a year.
UCLA’s Million Dollar Hoods team researched LA County’s cash bail system and found, in addition to disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic residents, “the money bail system is a multi-billion dollar toll that demands tens of millions of dollars annually in cash and assets from some of LA’s most economically vulnerable persons, families, and communities.”