The California Supreme Court has already started to implement the policies of Senate Bill 10, The California Bail Reform Act, which would have taken effect on Oct. 1, 2019, and eliminates the cash bail system. But they jumped the gun.

SB 10 by Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland), would eliminate bail, which bail bondsmen and attorneys say is a vital tool that ensures people arrested for crimes will return to court for their trials, California Globe reported in April. SB 10 will “increase crime and cost the public untold hundreds of millions of dollars,” Jeff Adachi, San Francisco Public Defender said in support of the ballot initiative, before he recently and suddenly passed away.

Former Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 10 into law in August 2018. However, Before SB 10 could have gone into effect, Californians Against the Reckless Bail Scheme fought the legislation on two points: it would result in the release of violent offenders to the streets and would kill a $2-billion national industry, as well as the 3,200 bail agents in California. The group collected more than 575,000 signatures in 70 days to put SB 10 on the November 2020 ballot, to allow California voters to decide.

This is why it is important to question why the California Supreme Court already began implementing the policies of SB10, prior to a vote of the California electorate. And according to the American Bail Coalition, they are using $68 million dollars of taxpayer money to implement this.

In January, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye announced a new work group to review progress on reforms to California’s system of pretrial detention and identify next steps to continue work on the issue.

“Across California and the nation, pretrial release and detention primarily based on cash bail are slowly being replaced with safer and fairer alternatives. In California, we are leading and experiencing reforms driven by best practices, but also pilot projects, court decisions, and legislation,” Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye said. “This work group will help continue progress toward reform that benefits the branch, enhances public safety and promotes equitable treatment of all who come through our criminal justice system.”

It is as though the ballot initiative for SB 10 never occurred. What is it they are implementing?

California is testing out a system funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, where bail is eliminated for so-called “low-level offenses.” In numerous California cities, a mathematical algorithm is to be used instead of using a judge. The Laura and John Arnold Foundation is testing this algorithmic pretrial risk assessment tool in 40 jurisdictions across the country.

However, California Globe has seen evidence of some of the “low level” offenders being let out on their own recognizance, with cases dismissed prior even to arraignment in front of a judge, and these do no appear to be “low level” offenders or “low level” crimes.

Here are a few examples of crimes committed by “low level” offenders in California, released under the pretrial risk assessment program. They were let out before seeing a judge, and before bail could be assigned:

Illegal possession and transporting a machine gun

Machine gun conversion

Possession of a silencer

Transportation of assault weapon

Manufacture of an unsafe handgun

Large capacity magazine activity

Possession of a deadly weapon: short barrel rifle/shotgun

Forcible rape

Sodomy by use of force

Lewd Act upon a child

Human trafficking

Sexual penetration with a foreign object

Intent to transmit sexually transmitted disease

Kidnapping

Stalking

False imprisonment

Contributing to the delinquency of a minor

The American Bail Coalition says the California Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown knew that these risk assessments were flawed when they passed SB 10, but then immediately followed it up with this pretrial funding request in the budget. They were well aware of the flaws because the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in the summer of 2018 came out against these risk assessments, as did over 50 civil rights groups in California.

The American Bail Coalition reports:

“Both the California Judicial Council and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors received letters on July 17, 2019 from 27 prominent academics from coast-to-coast that instructed them to stop the pretrial risk assessment movement. What did they do? Ignore it. The shared statement was devastating to the risk assessment ‘computer will fix everything’ movement.”

The The Judicial Council is the policymaking body of the California courts, and under the leadership of the Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, and approved $68 million to fund pilot projects in 16 trial courts aimed at releasing more arrestees from jail while they await trial, Courthouse News recently reported.

The courts selected are in Alameda, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Sonoma, Tulare, Ventura, Kings, Napa, Sierra, Yuba, Nevada-Sierra, Tuolumne, Modoc and Calaveras counties.

“In early 2015, San Francisco began the process of assessing readiness and implementing the Arnold Foundation’s Public Safety Assessment (PSA), a risk tool that promotes safety, equity, and justice, in consultation with Justice System Partners,” the SF Pretrial group reported. “As the agency providing court and criminal history summaries, SF Pretrial was identified as a lead stakeholder in the implementation process. The PSA Working Group was established in August 2015 and consists of partners from the Sheriff’s Department, Superior Court, SF Pretrial, District Attorney’s Office, Public Defender’s Office, SF Criminal Conflicts Panel, and SF Reentry Council/Division of Adult Probation Department. The Working Group reviewed and advised on the timeline; provided input into the California PSA Violent Offenses List; and developed the Decision Making Framework, Court Report Template, Quality Assurance and Outcome Measures. The PSA Working Group continues to meet on a quarterly basis. All materials developed by the PSA Working Group are maintained by SF Pretrial.”

“In San Francisco, an individual who was on felony probation, had been re-arrested, then released pretrial based on a judge’s discernment after evaluating the Arnold tool, later killed a 71-year-old man,” Inside Sources reported. “More than a third of those released in San Francisco as a result of the assessment were either booked on a new offense or failed to appear, according to a study.”

Other critics of SB 10 say the Arnold Foundation actually helped write the bill and claim only the foundation’s Public Safety Assessment fits the bill’s requirements.

“According to the text of the legislation, only his foundation’s system would meet the requirements of the bill,” a National Public Pension Coalition blog post claims. “SB 10 would essentially award the Laura and John Arnold Foundation a contract worth tens of millions of dollars a year to implement their system in California. How convenient for the Arnold Foundation that their proposed system is the only one that works according to the proposed legislation they helped to write!”

The other concern is that the data going into the algorithm tool is skewed to accommodate the concern that more people of color are “wrongfully convicted” of crimes.