California’s reparations task force is pushing for the state to end cash bail and the prosecution of low-level crimes as part of its campaign to pressure the Golden State to make amends for slavery and anti-Black racism.Â
The task force, which was created by state legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, formally approved last weekend its final recommendations to the California Legislature, which will decide whether to enact the measures and send them to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.
The recommendations included several proposals related to criminal justice, including the elimination of cash bail.
“The cash bail system is at the core of many of the class and race-based inequities in the criminal legal system,” the task force wrote in its proposal. “The task force accordingly recommends that the legislature take all steps necessary to definitively end cash bail.”
DESANTIS REJECTS ‘WOKE’ CASH BAIL REFORM: ‘AN IDEOLOGICAL AGENDA’
Democrats and progressive prosecutors across the country have in recent years taken steps to end cash bail, arguing it’s unfair to low-income people who can’t afford it. According to the committee’s final report outlining its proposals, a cash bail system allows those with resources to return to their homes and jobs while others remain in jail before their trials despite the presumption of innocence.
“Pretrial detention can last months and even years, during which incarcerated individuals suffer countless harms, including deteriorating mental and physical health, risk of sexual violence and lasting trauma,” the task force wrote. “These harms exert significant pressure on defendants to accept plea bargains in order to be released from custody rather than fighting the charges at trial.”
Many Republicans and other critics counter that bail helps keep people from committing crimes and that eliminating it will only incentivize more criminal behavior. A recent study found that criminal offenders let out with low bail or at no…
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