A new study comparing California repeat offenders who posted bail with those who were let out with low or no cost under “Zero Bail” policies found that the latter group reoffended more often, more quickly and were accused of 200 times more violent crimes.
“The impacts of zero bail on violent crime are obvious, and they’re horrific,” said Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig, whose office published the study. “I mean, we have more people being shot at, stabbed, assaulted, robbed, beaten. These are real victims – and the numbers are staggering under zero bail.”
Under an emergency zero-bail rule at the height of the coronavirus pandemic meant to minimize jail crowding, bail costs were “dramatically reduced,” often to $0, according to the study.
After looking at the results, Reisig told Fox News Digital that they show “zero bail is a completely failed policy” and said his goal is for lawmakers to have the data compiled and available to them as the state’s legislative session resumes.
CALIFORNIA MEN ACCUSED OF COMMITTING RAPES, MURDER AFTER BEING RELEASED ON BAIL
“It was really important to do this study to have data available to those lawmakers in California who continue to believe that this is the answer to all of the problems in the criminal justice system, that zero bail is somehow going to make things better,” Reisig said. “And it’s not. It’s just going to make everything more dangerous.”
The new study comes as a follow-up to an August examination of crime in Yolo County, which Reisig said received criticism for not having a control group. So this time, the analysis compared bailed out individuals with zero-bail suspects.
WATCH: Yolo County DA Jeff Reisig says zero bail is a fail across the board
Key findings from the study indicate suspects released without bail were rearrested on 163% more charges than those who posted bail, and they reoffended 70% more often. Those reoffenses resulted in felony charges 90% more often – and they were accused of three times…
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