SAN JOSE, Calif. (CN) — Santa Clara County joined a growing list of municipalities around the nation to be sued for forcing people who can't afford bail into jail — even if they've not been formally arrested.
Nikolaus Jackson O’Neill Rogge and Silicon Valley De-Bug, a nonprofit organization based in San Jose sued Santa Clara County on Monday claiming people who want to voluntarily appear in court to address an outstanding arrest warrant must first go to jail if they don't have the money to post bail.
O’Neill Rogge, a county resident, says he discovered his outstanding arrest warrant for a claim of nonviolent offense during a routine background check in a job-training program. He says when he contacted the court clerk to request a court date, he learned his only option was to surrender to jail custody since he could not afford the $10,000 bail for the warrant. He spent three days in custody until a judge released him on recognizance without having to post a bond.
“I had never been arrested before and was scared,” O’Neill Rogge said. “It’s unfair that I had to go to jail just because I couldn’t pay but if I’d had the $10,000, they would have given me a court date and sent me home.”
The plaintiffs say the court’s system amounts to wealth-based detention and results in unequal access to the courts in violation of the constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process.
The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California and Stanford Law School's Criminal Defense Clinic represent the plaintiffs.
“Equal access to the courts shouldn't depend on your ability to pay,” said Emi Young, a staff attorney with the criminal justice program at the ACLU of Northern California. “That's why we’re suing to stop the Santa Clara Superior Court from running a system that unnecessarily locks poor people up, when they just want to appear in court on the charges against them.”
Many courts in California allow a person charged with a criminal offense to appear in court to clear their outstanding arrest warrant. For example, Contra Costa, Napa, Sonoma and Monterey counties allow people with outstanding arrest warrants to check in with the court clerk before a certain time to be placed on the court’s calendar that day.
In 2020, some Santa Clara County judges allowed attorneys with a Public Defender Pre-Arraignment Representation and Review team to set warrant recall and arraignment dates for clients who could not afford to post bail on active initial arrest warrants. In almost every such case judges would recall a warrant, decline to require money bail and order a person to pretrial release..
However, Santa Clara County’s new policy starting in early 2022 denies calendar dates for those who cannot post bail. According to the ACLU, this violates the California Supreme Court’s recent holding that "no person should lose the right to liberty simply because that person can’t afford to post bail.”
Instead, the plaintiffs say, Santa Clara County’s policy creates two tiers of justice — those who can afford to post money bail and purchase an out-of-custody arraignment, and those who cannot pay who must undergo invasive booking procedures and pre-trial incarceration.
“Even a few days of unnecessary incarceration can cause incredible harm, both for the individual and the broader community,” said Raj Jayadev, co-founder of Silicon Valley De-Bug. “We’re often contacted by people who learn they have an arrest warrant and want to be proactive about dealing with the charges but fear turning themselves into the jail because they are caretakers, are working, or have other responsibilities that will be put at risk.”
Carlie Ware Horne, clinical supervising attorney with the Stanford Law Criminal Defense Clinic, said that people like O’Neill Rogge are being forced to serve jail time even if a judge could decide to release them based on information about their charges and individual circumstances.
“We are simply asking the Santa Clara Superior Court to bring itself in line with many other counties in California that provide a fair opportunity for people to come to court without first having to post money bail," Ware Horne said.
Representatives for Santa Clara Superior Court and and the County Counsel's Office did not respond to requests for comment before press time.
California has some of the most expensive uniform bail schedules in the country, with the median bail amount at $50,000 — more than five times the median amount in most other states, according to the complaint.
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