A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge issued a preliminary order barring the city and county from enforcing cash bail requests against certain people who have been arrested but not charged.
Judge Lawrence Riff wrote in his decision on Tuesday that enforcing cash bail against those who cannot pay “is a clear, pervasive and grave constitutional violation.”
The decision marks a major step forward in the ongoing lawsuit to permanently end cash bail at detention centers and prisons operated by the Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles Police Department.
In a lawsuit filed last fall, six people said they were arrested and detained for five days simply because they could not afford bail. During their detention, the lawsuit alleges, they spent time in “bad” conditions, lost job opportunities and missed opportunities to visit their children.
The ban does not cover people arrested on suspicion of serious and violent felonies. It will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. on May 24 and stay in effect for 60 days — during which time plaintiff and respondent will develop an alternative program. If the program is approved by a judge, it will go into effect on July 17.
Historically, when a Los Angeles police officer or deputy made an arrest, responders would calculate bail based on a predetermined schedule that took into account the type of crime, not the ability to pay. that man’s. If someone cannot afford bail or bail, they are held in a substation or sent to the county jail.
The plaintiffs said that requiring cash bail for release created a “wealth-based detention system”.
The order to return prisons to the way they were at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic lasted until last summer under an emergency order to reduce overcrowding and prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Salil Dudani, an attorney who worked on the case seeking a permanent injunction, called the ruling “historic” and “important.”
“This is the first time that a court in California has actually held a trial to see if bail really works or if it really is counterproductive and harmful,” Dudani said in an interview. interview on Wednesday.
Cash bail measures actually increase crime rates and make people less likely to appear in court, Dudani said.
A study cited by an expert witness who testified in the case found that Kentucky defendants who had been detained for the entire pre-trial period were more likely to be arrested for new criminal activity. 1.3 times in a 24-month period after their release.
“The ruling shows that there is so much irrefutable evidence that bail really does nothing to protect the public, does nothing to ensure people appear in court, and vice versa. On the contrary, it has the opposite effect,” Dudani said.
In his opinion, Riff described the constitutional harm that cash bail causes to plaintiffs as “extreme”.
“It is pervasive in that every year it has the potential to affect tens of thousands of impoverished people who are incarcerated simply because they are poor,” he wrote.
