Bail

Bob Egelko at the SF Chronicle:

Bail bond companies have started gathering signatures for a referendum to block a new California law, the first of its kind in the nation, that would eliminate cash bail as a requirement for pretrial release from jail.

State election officials authorized a trade association, the American Bail Coalition, to circulate petitions Monday to place the referendum on the November 2020 ballot. If the association collects 365,880 valid signatures of registered voters by Nov. 26, the law will be put on hold until the voters decide whether to repeal it. Otherwise, the law, SB10, would take effect in October 2019.

The measure, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Aug. 28, would abolish the system of requiring defendants to post bail, in amounts based on the level of the crime and a defendant’s record, in order to be freed while awaiting trial. At least one-third of jail inmates in California are being held because they are unable to post bail, and the system has been criticized for keeping poor defendants locked up while richer ones go free.

Instead, judges would decide whether to release defendants after an assessment of the danger they pose to the public and the likelihood they would return to court for trial. The assessments would use formulas based on the charges and circumstances of each case, but individual judges would have the last word.

The new law would also eliminate the bail bond industry in California, whose chief source of income is the non-refundable 10 percent fee that companies charge to defendants for posting bail.

So here is just another case of an economic interest group simply promoting the good of its members, right?  The situation is more complicated, as the LA Times reports:

The legislation’s passage should have been a victory for criminal justice reform advocates who for years sought to eliminate money bail. But some early backers, including the ACLU of Northern California, dropped their support amid concerns that the final version of the bill would allow judges to incarcerate more people for longer periods of time. They said it also did not include enough oversight over risk assessment tools, technological analyses that rely on computer algorithms to predict a person’s likelihood to break the law again, which studies have found can exhibit bias against communities of color.

Bail agents say they have received calls from defense lawyers and civil rights groups, including at least two groups in Los Angeles, who have shown an interest in joining the effort to oppose the new law.

“I think eventually it will be a lot more than just the bail industry,” [American Bail Coalition director Jeff] Clayton said of the voter referendum.

The ACLU on Friday declined to comment on whether it would join the industry’s efforts. Civil rights groups are waiting on the state Supreme Court to review a ruling on a judge’s authority to set bail.