Group files class-action complaint to scrap S.F.’s cash-bail system

Photo: San Franicsco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi Speaks To Members Of The Media Thursday, While Arguing That Th / Evan Sernoffsky Photo: San Franicsco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi Speaks To Members Of The Media Thursday, While Arguing That Th / Evan Sernoffsky Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Group files class-action complaint to scrap S.F.’s cash-bail system 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A national civil rights group filed a federal class-action complaint Thursday against San Francisco seeking to dismantle the city’s cash bail system, which it charges is unconstitutional and unfairly singles out poor people.

Those without money and resources who are arrested in San Francisco are forced to sit in jail because, unlike the rich, they cannot afford to bail out, said Phil Telfeyan, an attorney for nonprofit Equal Justice Under Law of Washington.

“In San Francisco, your freedom is attached to your wealth status,” Telfeyan said at a Thursday news conference at the San Francisco public defender’s office. “The poor are forced to stay in jail until the resolution of their case while the rich get out.”

The bail system has long been a target of criminal justice reformers. This year alone, Equal Justice Under Law filed similar complaints in eight other states, resulting in six settlements in which jurisdictions agreed to do away with the money bail practice altogether.

San Francisco’s case, though, is unique in that it has the support of Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi — an outspoken progressive and advocate for criminal-justice reform who faces an uphill fight for re-election following a series of scandals within his department.

Alternatives available

Mirkarimi said the tools that his jails use, including electronically monitoring inmates on supervised release, could be used for pretrial defendants.

He said nearly 80 percent of people in custody at the San Francisco Jail are pretrial inmates and 30 percent of them have their bail set at $5,000 or less. Doing away with the cash bail system would significantly reduce the jail’s population and save the city thousands of dollars, he said.

“San Francisco has done an underwhelming job addressing issues that contribute to the criminalization of poverty,” Mirkarimi said Thursday. “Reforming the inequities of the bail system is a perfect place to start.”

In January, the Justice Department got involved in a complaint filed in Clanton, Ala., saying bond systems that mandate prefixed payments regardless of an inmate’s economic status, violate the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection.

In San Francisco, judges are required by state law to follow a bail schedule that predetermines bond based on the charges filed against defendants.

Riana Buffin, a 19-year-old Oakland resident, is the first plaintiff in the class-action complaint against San Francisco. She was arrested Monday on suspicion of shoplifting and conspiring with a department store employee in a series of thefts.

Buffin’s bail was set at $30,000, which she could not pay. The woman, who earns $10.25 an hour at her job at the Oakland airport, sat in jail until Wednesday, when the San Francisco district attorney’s office declined to file charges and she was released, Deputy Public Defender Chesa Boudin said.

“The overwhelming majority of my clients are far too poor to bail out, otherwise they wouldn’t have a public defender,” Boudin said.

Defending the system

Those who work in the bail bonds industry, though, point out that while the system may be flawed, it is an effective measure to ensure defendants show up in court.

“Justice can’t be served if someone doesn’t appear in court,” said Corrin Rankin, owner of Out Now Bail Bonds in Redwood City and area director of the California Bail Agents Association. “That’s what the bail system is here to do.”

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who is not involved in the class-action complaint, has long fought to reform the money bail system.

“Bail reform is very important because your ability to post bail doesn’t evaluate your risk to the community,” he said. “People with access to wealth can post bail and be very dangerous.”

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky