The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/bail/)
Both the prosecutor and defender advised pretrial release of Matthew Aldous, who was caught writing graffiti in the city’s historic district. But a judge set his bail at $10,000, effectively placing behind bars an individual who advocates said should have been diverted to mental health services.
Despite reductions in the state’s pretrial population, the “over-representation of black males” needs attention, according to New Jersey’s Administrative Office of the Courts.
New court-made rules will require Missouri judges to start with the presumption that no bail is needed. If bail is assessed, it should be just high enough to “ensure safety or the defendant’s appearance,” the chief justice announced.
Bail reform is on the march, and it deserves to be, conservative criminal justice reformer Marc Levin writes in a new analysis of what’s happening nationwide.
California’s giant commercial-bail industry, already facing an existential threat through legislation, now faces a lawsuit claiming the industry is an illegal “price-fixing cartel.”
A new slate of Democratic judges in Houston approved comprehensive revisions to Harris County’s bail system that could clear the way for thousands of people, regardless of income, to avoid spending time in jail while awaiting trial on minor offenses.
Election officials on Wednesday certified a statewide referendum backed by a coalition of bail industry associations, verifying more than 400,000 signatures to qualify a measure for the ballot that would overturn a law passed to abolish the state’s money bail system.
Bail bond companies leading a charge to overturn a new California law that would put them out of business say they have submitted 200,000 more signatures than needed to qualify their referendum for the 2020 state ballot. If the proposition is verified, the bail reform law would not go into effect next year as scheduled but would be put on hold until the election.
After a report criticized his court for setting high money bonds that resulted in a “bloated” local jail population, Kentucky Circuit Court Judge Darren Peckler changed course.
After becoming warden of the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women, Margaret Chippendale noticed that women were leaving the system a lot heavier than when they arrived. She has cut about 1,000 calories a day from a 3,200-calorie menu filled with carbs.