California Governor Jerry Brown signed "sweeping legislation" into law yesterday that will completely eliminate all cash bail for pretrial detainees as of October 1, 2019, and replace it with "risk assessments" and non-monetary conditions of release.
SB 10, co-authored by Senator Bob Hertzberg (D - Los Angles) and Assemblyman Rod Bonta (D - Alameda), was first introduced in the Senate in December 2016. The Bill was co-sponsored by the ACLU and had the support of multiple civil rights groups. Bail reform advocates argued that cash bail systems unfairly punished the poor--those with money could buy their freedom, while low income individuals could not. They argued that the ability to pay had nothing to do with whether an arrested individual is a danger to the public or likely to flee pre-trial. Advocates were pushing for reforms that implemented risk assessment tools to better help guide judges in making decisions as to who should be detained pre-trial. Only those who are dangerous or flight risks should be detained. Eliminating cash bail altogether, however, was not on the table.
SB 10 was amended several times and stalled in the Assembly in September 2017. It sat there for nearly one year. Last week, SB 10 was suddenly resurrected, gutted, and significantly amended. Under the amended version, cash bail was totally eliminated and judges were given greater power to detain people pretrial if they are considered "high risk." SB 10 was quickly passed by the Assembly on August 20th, and then by the Senate the following day.
Alexei Koseff of the Sacramento Bee reports that the ACLU, state public defenders, defense attorneys, and other civil rights groups, who supported the earlier version of SB 10, all turned against the amended legislation and urged Gov. Brown to veto the bill. These groups argue that the bill will increase the number of people held pretrial because it gives judges more power and discretion to decide who should be detained without any method of release at all.
The ACLU contends that "SB 10 is not the model for pretrial justice and racial equity that California should strive for."
On the other side of the aisle, the California Bail Agents Association, who have aggressively opposed bail reform legislation from the beginning, are "already mobilizing to block the new law from taking effect[.]" Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones calls SB 10 a "public safety disaster." Under the new law, nearly all people arrested for misdemeanors (which includes all felonies that were reduced to misdemeanors by Prop 47) will be released within 12 hours of arrest.
Despite the heavy opposition from all sides, Governor Brown signed SB 10 into law on August 28, making California the first state in the nation to completely eliminate cash bail.
I wonder how much habeas corpus action will be generated by detainees under this statute.