The current money bail system is people who got arrested on any crime or burglary, even a minor, non-violent offense, stay locked up. It may lead to the risk of losing their jobs or homes if they can’t afford to pay a non-refundable expenditure to a bail bondsman — which costs an average of $5,000. Governor Newsom, guiding the passage of Prop 25, emphasized the vote as an opportunity for Californians to be at the vanguard of a national movement to root out intolerance in the justice system. This brings to the question -Is Gavin Newsom a supporter of no cash bail?
Is Gavin Newsom a supporter of no cash bail? -“California should annihilate cash bail,” says Gavin Newsom
Most people are in jail just because they don’t have enough money. They haven’t been condemned of anything, and they simply can’t afford to pay pre-trial bail. Over-incarceration failed us in America. The United States has 5 percent of the global population yet 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. In 2013 there were more African Americans imprisoned on probation. Most people in American jails have not yet been to trial, and the expansive majority remain locked up simply because they can’t afford cash bail.
But, California continues to use a cash bail system. The only two countries that permit for-profit bail operations are the United States and tyrant Duterte’s Philippines. It seems intensely evident and commonsensical that no one should remain locked up or go free based on their ability to pay. Pre-trial custody decisions should be based on an individual’s threat to the community and risk of flight. It is not how much cash they can deliver.
Cash bail furtively worsens our criminal justice system’s class and racial differences by creating a torrent of devastating effects for poor people and their families, who often lose jobs, homes, and even their children before a court even consider their blame or innocence.
Former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy totaled up the injustice of cash bail while conducting a federal reform in the 1960s. It says: “Thousands of persons were kept in jail for weeks, months, and years the following arrest. They are not yet proven guilty. They may be no more likely to run or escape than you or I. Nonetheless, most of them must stay in jail because to be straightforward, they cannot afford to pay for their freedom.”
Kennedy’s work reformed the federal cash bail system, but California and some other states still depend on it. To address this, U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., have introduced an extremely valuable proposal to push states to reform or replace their bail systems.
In recent years there’s been substantial rate, progress, and peace around criminal justice reforms, and no state has made more substantial progress than the Golden State. Yet despite California’s leadership in creating a more equitable justice system, we lag behind states that have eliminated or shortened the use of cash bail, including Massachusetts, Maine, Oregon, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, and New Jersey, and Wisconsin.
A group of fearless California state legislators, led by Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, and Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, are standing up to the special interests in the bail bonds initiative who profit from the current oppressive system. These lawmakers, along with Gov. Jerry Brown and Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, are set to the critical work of examining and improving California’s bail system.
