California’s Judicial Council voted Wednesday to end the statewide emergency bail schedule created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, though local court officials appear poised to keep similar measures in place.
The 17-2 vote repeals effective June 20 the emergency schedule, which set zero bail for misdemeanors and low-level felonies with the intent of reducing jail populations — by 20,000 across the state, according to the Judicial Council’s estimate — and curbing the spread of coronavirus.
Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye also has rescinded a statewide order extending time for defendants to be arraigned, reverting the limit to the previous 48 hours.
“The Judicial Council’s action better reflects the current needs of our state, which has different health concerns and restrictions county-to-county based on the threat posed by COVID-19,” Justice Marsha Slough, a Judicial Council member and chair of its Executive and Planning Committee, said in a news release following Wednesday’s action.
“We urge local courts to continue to use the emergency COVID-19 bail schedule where necessary to protect the health of the community, the courts, and the incarcerated. We are also asking courts to report back by June 20 on whether they plan to keep the COVID-19 emergency bail schedule, or another reduced bail schedule,” Slough said.
Those conversations are forthcoming, Yolo Superior Court Presiding Judge Samuel McAdam said Thursday.
He noted that Yolo County was one of the first courts in California to adopt a zero-bail schedule in late March, under Cantil-Sakauye’s recomendation, as the pandemic ramped up. The chief justice issued the emergency order on April 13 “because some local courts did not follow her lead,” McAdam said.
“We’ve historically followed the recommendations of the chief justice,” he added, emphasizing that any local bail-reduction measures would continue to target low-level crimes and not serious or violent offenders.
A decision is expected to be announced next week, following discussions between the court and Yolo County’s justice partners. “We’re going to listen to everybody,” McAdam said.
The bail schedule’s impact in Yolo County varies slightly based on who you ask. According to the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the jail, 156 inmates gained release under the zero-bail order, while another 26 left the jail under another statewide measure allowing sheriffs to release low-risk inmates with fewer than 60 days remaining in their sentences.
Meanwhile, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office says 151 inmates were freed under emergency bail conditions — including prior to the Judicial Council order — while 27 received early release before their sentences expired.
Of that combined number, “24 have reoffended, and several multiple times,” Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Melinda Aiello said.
Aiello called the statewide bail schedule “well intentioned” but inadequate, saying it “compromised public safety and created a revolving-door policy that impeded the criminal justice system from addressing underlying issues such as addiction or mental health illness that cause criminal behavior.”
“As the courts are slowly beginning to reopen, it was time for the Judicial Council to rescind its statewide order and allow the counties to craft a bail schedule that balances public safety with the need to maintain a manageable jail population to mitigate the risk of COVID being introduced into the jail and reduce the risk of spread,” Aiello said. “We will work with the court and our criminal justice partners to achieve such a goal.”
Public Defender Tracie Olson, meanwhile, penned a letter to McAdam urging Yolo to maintain the emergency bail provisions in order to further minimize COVID-19’s spread in the local jail and decrease court congestion caused by pandemic-induced case delays.
The jail’s reduced population of 201 as of Thursday — less than half its maximum capacity — allows the facility to house inmates in individual cells and maintain a separate quarantine area for those showing symptoms of the virus, Olson noted. So far, no inmates or employees have tested positive.
“Going back to the pre-COVID-19 bail schedule would endanger lives, as once the jail population increases, the conditions I describe above would be lost, encouraging virus spread,” Olson wrote. “This will endanger the lives of people in jail and in our communities, especially Black people, who are incarcerated and sickened and killed by this disease at disproportionate rates.
“As the movement against systemic racism grows, Yolo County should be a leader in protecting this vulnerable minority population; it should not be making life more dangerous,” the letter says.
Yolo County Supervisor Don Saylor also weighed in on the issue, telling the Judicial Council the emergency bail schedule — along with the order granting early inmate releases — had “positive” impacts.
In addition to safer jail conditions, “the brief period of time with these additional tools in place has generated early indications that public safety has not been endangered through zero-cash bail and early release,” Saylor said. “Of course, this is an incomplete finding. We need to do a complete assessment of all the aspects of this issue.”
He added: “While California is following a reasonable reopening schedule set to the governor’s Four Phase Road to Reopening, we are not through this pandemic yet. All of the phases of reopening have been accompanied by risk-reduction precautions. We know that any activity that involves groups of people in tight quarters indoors for extended periods of time provides the highest risk for COVID-19 contagion. We are still at risk.”
The Judicial Council also was slated to consider Wednesday whether to end emergency rules regarding evictions and judicial foreclosures, but opted to suspend those votes. “I believe the executive and legislative branches will need more time to sort through various policy proposals,” Cantil-Sakauye said.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene