CA Council Temporarily Suspends Bail For Some Non-Violent Crimes

CALIFORNIA — The California Judicial Council voted on Monday to temporarily eliminate bail for lower-level crimes in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and in an effort to slow the influx of inmates and to help avoid the chance of an outbreak in jails across the state. The council, headed up by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, approved a measure that allows bail to be set at $0 for misdemeanors and most non-violent felonies. In its ruling, the council specified that the new condition also applies to those being held on bail on minor charges.

The new bail standard will go into effect on April 13 and will, according to Monday’s vote, remain in effect for 90 days after the state of emergency order by Gov. Gavin Newsom ends. Newsom earlier allowed the judicial council to invoke its emergency powers to keep courts across California in operation during the pandemic.

"(We are) trying our best to preserve rights and ultimately preserve lives,'' Cantil-Sakauye said during Monday’s meeting, which was convened by teleconference. "We are at this point truly with no guidance in either history, law or precedent."

Judicial council member Marsha Slough, an associate justice in the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Riverside said in introducing the new standard that the measure strikes a balance “between the health and safety and the rights of defendants, and the courts and the course workload.”

Cantil-Sakauye added: "The Judicial Council should take these temporary actions in order to protect the health and safety of the public, court employees, attorneys, litigants, and judicial officers, as well as staff and inmates in detention facilities, and law enforcement during the state of emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Slough added that bails were being set at $0 to avoid confusion with the “no bail” status that courts use in association with serious crimes that are not eligible for bail.