Criminal justice reform in Texas’ biggest county took another tortured step forward Thursday, as combatants in litigation over the county’s bail policies laid out their differences before a federal judge who is narrowing her injunction in the case.
Read moreThe California Supreme Court will decide the constitutionality of the state’s money bail system, granting review late Wednesday to the case of Kenneth Humphrey, whose $350,000 bail led to an appellate court ruling requiring judges to consider a person’s ability to pay when setting bail.
Read moreOver 65,000 people were arrested and booked by the Los Angeles Police Department in 2017 and were levied over $3.6 billion in bail money, according to a study released Tuesday.
Read moreA 64-year-old arrestee whose $350,000 bail led to a seminal appellate ruling on bail reform in California was released from jail Thursday by a San Francisco trial judge, who admonished the man not to do anything that might land him back in court.
Read moreA man whose $350,000 bail on a charge of robbing his neighbor of $7 became a rallying cry for the bail system’s critics, will remain in jail for now until the neighbor has a chance to speak in court.
Read moreA class claims Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart’s new policy unconstitutionally delays the release of jail detainees, pending his personal review, even though they have already posted bail.
Read moreA federal judge on Monday certified a class of pretrial arrestees in a class action fighting money bail in San Francisco.
Read moreSan Francisco made history Tuesday by becoming the first city in the nation to introduce a law to eliminate many of the fines and fees that come with being arrested, including fees for probation costs, booking and ankle monitors.
Read moreThe federal judge who forced Texas’ biggest county to overhaul its bail system ordered Harris County criminal judges on Tuesday to prove they did not withhold evidence of policies against releasing poor misdemeanor defendants from jail.
Read moreIn a split ruling Tuesday, a federal judge denied summary judgment to both California bail agents and a proposed class of San Francisco arrestees challenging money bail as unconstitutional.
Read moreAt a hearing Tuesday, a federal judge lit into a lawyer challenging San Francisco’s bail scheme over evidence she said would be inadmissible in a federal court.
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California’s sluggishness on bail reform has earned the state a failing grade in pretrial justice, according to a report released Wednesday by the nonprofit Pretrial Justice Institute.
Read moreCalling the state’s cash bail system unsafe and unfair, California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye released a report Tuesday she hopes will help shape the future of pretrial detention in California.
Read moreNew York City’s failure to adopt bail reforms two years after a report labeled the system “deranged” has sparked a federal class action by three men caught in the crossfire.
Read moreFinding no constitutional right to monetary bail, a federal judge commended New Jersey’s bail-reform scheme for cutting down the Garden State’s pretrial jail population by more than one-third.
Read moreThe lawmakers behind the effort to reform California’s money-bail system said Friday they’ve gained critical allies in Gov. Jerry Brown and the Judicial Council, the body tasked with helping courts carry out changes in the statute.
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In a federal lawsuit against Gov. Chris Christie, a grieving mother says New Jersey’s bail reform law freed a violent criminal from jail without bond to shoot her son 22 times.
Read moreThe Orange County district attorney on Monday blasted bills pending in the Legislature that would loosen California’s sex-offender registration requirements, largely eliminate its bail system, and allow shorter sentences for felony use of a gun, saying the changes would have “a dramatic and negative impact” on public safety.
Read moreClaiming that complying with a federal judge’s order to release poor, “potentially dangerous” people charged with misdemeanors from its jail in Houston will cause irreparable harm, Harris County asked the U.S. Supreme Court late Tuesday to stay the order.
Read moreHarris County, Texas officials refused Tuesday to buckle to public pressure to settle a lawsuit in which a federal judge ordered the county to release poor misdemeanor defendants from jail within 24 hours, and instead filed an appeal to the Fifth Circuit.
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