After 40-year fight, California becomes the first state to abolish cash bail for arrested suspects

[phands]

About time. Wonder if other states will follow....and can almost predict which won't...

[FONT=&quot]In a little over a year, getting arrested in California is going to look very, very different than it does today. Thanks to the California Money Bail Reform Act, also known as SB10, the cash bail system is going to be eradicated from the Golden State. [/FONT]

Taking action to revamp California’s bail system, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today signed Senate Bill 10, the California Money Bail Reform Act, which preserves the rights of the accused, while prioritizing public safety.
The new law – which will take effect on January 1, 2020 – establishes a new system for determining a defendant’s custody status while they await trial based on an assessment of risk to public safety and probability of missing a court date rather than their ability to pay cash bail.
“Today, California reforms its bail system so that rich and poor alike are treated fairly,” said Governor Brown.
​

[FONT=&quot]The move comes after years of reform attempts, and just months after California courts deemed the cash bail system to be unconstitutional in a case in which a 63-year-old San Francisco man—accused of stealing $5 and a bottle of cologne from a neighbor—saw [/FONT]his bail set first at $600,000, before being reduced to a still-out-of-reach $350,000.[FONT=&quot] The decision was scathing, in its assessment both of the specifics of the case and of the bail system writ large. [/FONT]

Full article, with decision, at https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...te-to-abolish-cash-bail-for-arrested-suspects

 

[couch_sloth]

In a little over a year, getting arrested in California is going to look very, very different than it does today. Thanks to the California Money Bail Reform Act, also known as SB10, the cash bail system is going to be eradicated from the Golden State.

From the link:

Californians for Safety and Justice Founder and Executive Director Lenore Anderson:

“The signing of SB 10 is historic. California is now the first state in the nation to completely eliminate the predatory commercial bail industry and wealth-based determinations of who is held in jail. Now California can get to work: this is the beginning of building a fair and effective pretrial system on our state.”

So I guess, no more bail bondsmen or bounty-hunters in the golden state.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Bail makes sense, until one finds out that the bail system is about as unequal protection under the law as it gets. Simply put, people that can't make bail tend to get harsher punishments.

 

[Elixir]

So... everyone is released on their own recognizance if the judge deems it probable that they'll show up as ordered? And wealthy people are incarcerated just like poor people, if the judge deems them a flight risk?

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

So... everyone is released on their own recognizance if the judge deems it probable that they'll show up as ordered? And wealthy people are incarcerated just like poor people, if the judge deems them a flight risk?

Makes sense to me.

 

[repoman]

This will be a good test of the system.

It would be better for people with "ties to the community" to get zero consideration for this fact.

 

[Elixir]

So... everyone is released on their own recognizance if the judge deems it probable that they'll show up as ordered? And wealthy people are incarcerated just like poor people, if the judge deems them a flight risk?

Makes sense to me.

B-b-b-b-but... what about all those JOBS!

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

B-b-b-b-but... what about all those JOBS!

lol

But seriously, bounty hunters could exist without accused people having to post bail. You could have courts and governments hire them regardless, to bring fleeing accused to court. But really, its much better to have bailiffs and police officers do that. Bounty Hunters do and should face kidnapping charges in many parts of the world.

 

[Elixir]

B-b-b-b-but... what about all those JOBS!

lol

But seriously, bounty hunters could exist without accused people having to post bail. This guy could still have a job. You could have courts and governments hire them regardless, to bring fleeing accused to court.

Trooo!
I wasn't being serious there. The serious concern is that the judiciary is being packed to the gills with right-wing judges who are as likely as not to determine "high risk" on the basis of skin color.
I'm a low-risk whitebread case, but if you happen to be middle eastern, Native American, Asian, or (God forbid!) African American, you might be jailed pending trial for the same offense that puts me back on the street.

 

[RavenSky]

The serious concern is that the judiciary is being packed to the gills with right-wing judges who are as likely as not to determine "high risk" on the basis of skin color.

This is my concern, too.

I think the cash bail system has very much the same flaw, but I don't think a cashless system fixes it.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Bail makes sense, until one finds out that the bail system is about as unequal protection under the law as it gets. Simply put, people that can't make bail tend to get harsher punishments.

Exactly. Bail is good in theory, very bad in practice.

 

[fast]

This encourages poverty.

The whole point of becoming rich is so that I can buy my freedom. Not only now has all my work been in vain, but now those that vote Democrat get to watch those that fought for richness to suffer along side of those that spent their days smoking pot.

What's California got in store for us next? All students get an "A" regardless if they study, learn, or pass?

Awe, where treating everybody the same is fair--regardless of how rich they are and no matter how much harder they try to succeed so that they can one day buy their freedom if need be!