Recently, Equal Justice Under Law, a non-profit organization, filed a class action lawsuit seeking to end the cash bail system in San Francisco. The organization says that it is fighting “systemic inequalities” in the legal system and that San Francisco’s bail system is a “wealth-based detention scheme.” The lawsuit takes aim at cash bail claiming that it is responsible for a two-class system – one in which wealthy can purchase their freedom and the “poor arrestees must languish in jail.” The Washington D.C. group offers alternatives such as pretrial release services, which will save money for taxpayers and will increase court appearances.
Unfortunately, the group and the lawsuit fail to mention exactly how moving to court based monitoring will save taxpayers money when a bail system costs taxpayers absolutely nothing. Without question, the criminal courts are overburdened and underfunded. People are waiting in jail for absolutely too long to see their day in court. Prosecutors and Public Defenders are bombarded with an endless caseload. The system simply cannot keep up. So how does relying on the court to then monitor defendants for pretrial release help relieve that burden? When a defendant posts bail through a commercial bond company, the bondsman follows the case closely and bears the burden of finding a defendant who skips a court appearance. This is at no cost to a taxpayer. Putting the burden on the courts would have a direct cost to taxpayers, as the burden would shift to the government to find any fugitive.
Furthermore, the group fails to address how eliminating the bail system would improve the likelihood that someone appears in court. It has been proven over and over again that financial incentive goes a far way to ensure future court appearances. Family members are also often involved in bail decisions, giving the entire family incentive to make sure that the defendant appears in court.
Bail is supposed to be decided on a case-by-case basis and should be reviewable at the request of an aggrieved party. Eliminating the bail system will not eliminate the bias that exists in the criminal justice system; it will only put more fugitives on the street. Perhaps, San Francisco should address the one-size-fits-all approach that they have taken towards bail, but eliminating it all together would have grave consequences that will directly affect taxpayers’ wallets and their safety.