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California Becomes the First U.S. State to Eliminate Cash Bail

posted by martyb on Monday September 03 2018, @09:52PM   Printer-friendly
from the Rich-and-poor-treated-the-same dept.

takyon writes:

California Governor Jerry Brown has signed Senate Bill 10, the California Money Bail Reform Act, eliminating cash bail in the state:

An overhaul of the state's bail system has been in the works for years, and became an inevitability earlier this year when a California appellate court declared the state's cash bail system unconstitutional. The new law goes into effect in October 2019. "Today, California reforms its bail system so that rich and poor alike are treated fairly," Brown said in a statement, moments after signing the California Money Bail Reform Act.

The governor has waited nearly four decades to revamp the state's cash bail system. In his 1979 State of the State Address, Brown argued the existing process was biased, favoring the wealthy who can afford to pay for their freedom, and penalizing the poor, who often are forced to remain in custody.

[...] Under the California law those arrested and charged with a crime won't be putting up money or borrowing it from a bail bond agent to obtain their release. Instead, local courts will decide who to keep in custody and whom to release while they await trial. Those decisions will be based on an algorithm created by the courts in each jurisdiction.

Bail agents disapprove.

See also: California's 'cautionary tale' for others considering no cash bail system
California's bail bond empire strikes back

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by jelizondo on Tuesday September 04 2018, @05:49AM (1 child)

    by jelizondo (653) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 04 2018, @05:49AM (#730116) Journal

    Oh dear, we need to forgive rich people first.

    If someone enters your house and steals your valuables, you are the only one affected. If a banker steals, hundreds of thousands lose their homes [cnn.com]. Technically, yes the poor commit more crimes, but the crimes of the rich affect more people, like causing a recession [wikipedia.org].

    If you screw financially, you file for bankruptcy and may $deity have mercy on you. Bankers screw, they get bailed out to the tune of 16.8 trillion dollars [forbes.com]. Try that one for size.

    We need to stop thinking that because we are capitalists, anything rich people do is best. No, there is a lot of rich people [propublica.org] abusing the system: hiding income to avoid paying taxes, moving income offshore and other things that hurt everyone. They can get away with "white collar" crime which affect a lot of people. We need to start jailing the bastards as they did in Iceland [bloomberg.com]

    And no bail for the bastards!

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @10:46AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @10:46AM (#730179)

    This is how you steal and get away with it:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MF_Global [wikipedia.org]
    https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/mf-globals-shortfall-no-surprise-some-say/ [nytimes.com]

    Some MF Global employees were aware of a shortfall in the firm’s customer accounts days before filing for bankruptcy on Oct. 31, according to people involved in the case, a revelation that raises questions about why the firm failed to safeguard client money and whether it withheld information from authorities.

    One such indication came from an internal document suggesting that the firm was putting customer funds at risk on Oct. 27, an MF Global executive, Christine Serwinski, is expected to tell a Congressional panel on Wednesday. Specifically, the firm had burned through a buffer of its own money and was using the cash of customers who were trading overseas, according to one of the people involved in the case.

    Nobody has gone to jail for their involvement in these illegal transfers.

    If you take someone's money without permission and put the full amount back later you're still guilty of theft.
    http://fortune.com/2013/11/15/how-mf-globals-missing-1-5-billion-was-lost-and-found/ [fortune.com]