The System Is Broken

Picture this: a person assaults and injures another person and is arrested and charged with felony corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant (with prior felonies). At first, bail was set at $100,000 and knowing that he didn’t/doesn’t have the kind of money it would take to post any kind of bail makes you feel relieved and secure that a change might be in the air for your loved ones, mentally and physically. And then two days after being arrested he is released back into the community. Did I mention that this person had already been arraigned within the previous month on another criminal charge?

I am fully aware of the overcrowding issue in our jail and prison systems and knowing that they would likely plead down to avoid serious jail time and a trial and figured they would likely be released. What pisses me off is that violent criminals like this are released every day because our jails and prisons are overcrowded with 1. People who haven’t even been tried to date. Sometimes these men and women sit in the county jails or holding facilities for years without a speedy trial due to a corrupt cash bail system and an over-stretched criminal justice system in much need of reform and 2. Many of the people that are being held OR have been convicted, be it through a plea deal or actual trial conviction, are low-level, non-violent offenders. IE: young persons of color that were busted with weed (or even other illegal narcotics) or nonviolent theft charges, etc.

According to a recent CNN article black persons (particularly black men) in America are incarcerated at a rate five times higher than white persons. CNN’s article goes on to state: “Some elected prosecutors across the country have created their own policies to prevent mass incarceration by eliminating cash bail and by not prosecuting low-level amounts of marijuana and low-level nonviolent crimes like loitering.” Read that again: “low-level amounts of marijuana and low-level nonviolent crimes”. THESE are the men and women that we are incarcerating. Thus, leaving less and less room for prosecutors to hold violent criminals accountable for their actions. Actions that are many times repeat violations of the law and/or their parole/probation.

Our cash bail system is being widely criticized and reconsidered and TheWeek weighed the pros and cons of eliminating cash bail in a 2023 article. Following are a few of the “pros” to eliminating cash bail. TheWeek states that cash bail “disproportionately hurts communities of color and poor communities”. You have a system where those with substantial monetary resources are able to be released no matter their crime, however marginalized persons lacking resources have no means to obtain release and risk losing housing, employment and their children as they sit in jail awaiting trial. The ACLU suggests that cash bail and the downfall of the cash bail system violates due process and equal protection statutes. Eliminating cash bail does not cause a rise in crime. In fact, according to the ACLU, areas that rely on a cash bail system actually have the highest murder rates in the country vs those that do not. Likewise, according to the Center For American Progress: “those who await their trial in the community are no more likely to be re-arrested after bail reform was passed than before”.

CalMatters.org tells us that three quarters of all inmates (44,241) in California county jails are held without sentence or even conviction of a crime. Over 1300 of them have been waiting for over three years while over 300 have waited for over five years. “Most detainees waiting for justice are people of color. For example, Black people make up roughly 5% of the population of San Francisco, but account for 50% of the 220 inmates jailed for a year or longer.” CalMatter.org writes.

Our criminal justice system is in much need of serious reform if we are going to hold criminals accountable in a fair, equitable and ethical manner. We need to do our research, stand up and speak out against a system that warrants change desperately. We need to fight for a system that is free of racial and class disparity. And not only is it an injustice to keep low-level and/or nonviolent offenders locked up for years with or without conviction, but it’s an injustice to all victims of violent crimes that see their perpetrators walk free simply because there aren’t enough beds to house them.