The high court ruled courts cannot imprison suspects simply because they cannot afford bail. But it left open the question of when someone should be detained pretrial.
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In a landmark ruling on cash bail, the California Supreme Court ruled that courts cannot keep detainees behind bars just because they cannot afford to post bail.
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A pair of bills that would restructure California’s criminal justice system by setting bail at $0 for a wide range of criminal charges sailed out of their respective state legislative committees on Tuesday.
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Undaunted by recent setbacks at the ballot box, California lawmakers introduced two bills Wednesday aimed at reforming the state’s bail system.
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The California Supreme Court opened its 2021 session Tuesday with a long-awaited hearing on cash bail that will set the course for pretrial detention in California for years to come.
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On his first day on the job as Los Angeles County’s top prosecutor, George Gascón says the district attorney’s office will no longer ask for cash bail for nonviolent felony charges, seek the death penalty or charge children as adults.
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Trial courts across California may be required to consider a person’s ability to pay when setting bail after the state’s high court late Wednesday bolstered the landmark opinion in a case challenging the constitutionality of the state’s cash bail and pretrial detention system.
Read moreThe Nevada Supreme Court ruled Thursday that setting bail in an amount that a defendant is unable to pay infringes on a person’s liberty interest since it results in continued detention.
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A federal judge did not adequately weigh a new Missouri Supreme Court rule for cash bail bonds before issuing an injunction prohibiting the practice in St. Louis city courts, the Eighth Circuit ruled.
Read moreThe Nashville Community Bail Fund sued the Clerk of the Davidson County (Tenn.) Criminal Court in federal court, claiming he violated the Eighth Amendment by exploiting cash bail as a means of exacting payment for fines and fees.
Read moreHarris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, the Houston-area’s chief prosecutor, has burnished her progressive bona fides with programs that have dropped marijuana arrests by 80%. But her Democratic primary election opponent says her resistance to bail reform is out of sync with a county moving away from mass incarceration.
Read moreA private-ankle monitoring company did not extort daily fees from inmates by threatening them with re-arrest for nonpayment, a federal judge ruled Friday.
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A lawyer for four people who claim they were held in a debtors’ jail in St. Louis argued before an Eighth Circuit panel Thursday that a recent change in bail procedures does not make their case moot.
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A Tennessee county argued Tuesday before the Sixth Circuit to overturn an injunction requiring it to provide bail hearings for indigent defendants who would otherwise be unable to secure their release from jail after being arrested.
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A federal judge on Thursday approved a settlement mandating most misdemeanor arrestees in Houston be released promptly from jail without paying bail, brushing off concerns of prosecutors and police that it will endanger public safety.
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San Francisco’s new district attorney is the latest in a string of big-city chief prosecutors to win the office by promising sweeping reforms and a shift away from the traditional law and order punitive approach to criminal justice issues.
Read moreA proposed settlement to end cash bail for most misdemeanor arrestees in Houston emerged seemingly unscathed from a fairness hearing Monday, despite concerns from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that it will give a free pass to undocumented immigrants.
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Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris took aim Monday at the criminal justice system with her latest campaign plank, proposing to eliminate cash bail, private prisons and the death penalty.
Read moreThe Houston area’s top prosecutor sent her chief of staff to meet with local NAACP officials Thursday to assure them she supports bail reforms to keep poor misdemeanor arrestees out of jail, but she has concerns with a proposed settlement she says will endanger domestic violence victims.
Read moreThe city of San Francisco ended its stalemate Friday with pretrial detainees fighting the money bail system in the city.
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