Public Safety Realignment - ACLU of Northern California

Bail is some form of property, usually money, that a defendant deposits or pledges to the court inexchange for being released from jail pending trial. Bail is the court’s collateral against the risk that,once released, a defendant will fail to appear for trial. If the defendant fails to appear, he or sheforfeits the entire amount of bail posted orpledged to the court. California operates on whatis known as a “money-based” bail system.County courts set their own bail schedules,assigning dollar amounts to various crimes. Theresult is a patchwork of 58 divergent bailschedules across the state.Those who do not have enough money to postbail—virtually everyone accused of a crime incounty courts—may choose to post a surety bond(known as a “bail bond”) with the court instead.The defendant pays a fee of approximately 10-15percent of the total bail amount to a bailbondsman who, in turn, posts or pledges the full bail amount to the court. If the defendant fails toappear, the bail bondsman is held responsible and may be required to forfeit the entire bail amount tothe court.According to a 2010 investigative series by National Public Radio, in California and across thecountry, however, bail bond companies routinely fail to pay counties when their clients do not showup for court. The series reported that, in California, bonds companies owed counties $150 million. 69A One-Size-Fits All Bail SystemCalifornia law requires that judges take a number of considerations into account when setting bailand deciding the terms of pretrial release of defendants, including public safety, ensuring thedefendant’s appearance at trial and the impact of pretrial release on victims. 70 California’s moneybasedbail scheduling system, however, has warped into a presumptive bail system, in which judgescommonly fix the amount of bail according to the county schedule without meaningfully consideringthe specific circumstances of the individual defendant or the alleged crime including for example,low risk to public safety and low flight risk.Outside of California, some courts have held that such presumptive bail practices violate the dueprocess rights of defendants. 71 Additionally, as noted above, the bail schedules set among Californiacounties vary widely. For example, for simple drug possession the presumptive bail amount is $5,000in Fresno and Sacramento, $10,000 in Alameda and Los Angeles, and $25,000 in San Bernardino andin Tulare. 72 (See Figure E).20