Vote Yes on Prop. 25 to End Money Bail
By Mike Russo, Managing Director
The cash bail system rests on a flawed premise – that the best way to ensure people who have been arrested show up for their court dates is to put up a monetary bond. Because many people who have been arrested are low-income, these bonds are often unaffordable. As a result, in many counties half or more of the people incarcerated are pre-trial detainees, who are incarcerated simply because they cannot afford to pay to go free. The cash bail system has also created an entire predatory bail-bond industry that ensnares arrested people and their families in endless cycles of debt. And because Californians of color – especially Black Californians – are disproportionately targeted by the criminal justice system and often lack economic resources, the cash bail system heightens already unconscionable disparities.
A piece of state legislation from two years ago, SB 10, ended the cash bail system, though it had significant flaws – in particular, it endorsed a flawed “risk assessment” model that often relies on algorithms that present themselves as impartial while actually being based on racially-biased methods that do not truly reflect a person’s likelihood of not showing for their trial.
The bail bond industry put Prop 25 on the ballot to try to take advantage of SB 10’s shortcomings – the measure is a referendum, meaning that a yes vote would uphold the law, while a no vote would reinstate cash bail. While the law must be reformed, this referendum would take California back to an unjust and unsustainable system that unjustly incarcerates people simply because they cannot pay for bail, while lining the pockets of the bail-bond industry with money siphoned off from those who can least afford it. The best way to make change is to reject this attempt to go backward by voting Yes on Prop 25, and then work to ensure that our new bail system is free of racial bias.
Contact Mike Russo, Managing Director, for more information
This November, Californians will consider a set of ballot measures that could reshape our state into a more just and equitable society for generations to come. Here are our endorsements, offered to help move California into that better tomorrow:
- Supporting Proposition 15 (Schools and Communities First)
- Supporting Proposition 16 (Repeal Proposition 209 Affirmative Action Amendment)
- Supporting Proposition 17 (Voting Rights Restoration for Persons on Parole Amendment)
- Supporting Proposition 18 (Primary Voting for 17-Year-Olds Amendment)
- Opposing Proposition 20 (Criminal Sentencing, Parole, and DNA Collection Initiative)
- Supporting Proposition 21 (Local Rent Control Initiative)
- Supporting Proposition 25 ( Replace Cash Bail with Risk Assessments Referendum)
- Supporting L.A. County Measure J (Reimagine L.A.)