California Judicial Council Rescinds Zero Dollar Bail Rule

The California Judicial Council has voted to rescind its $0 bail rule it established to lower jail populations in response to COVID-19. The Judicial Council’s decision to establish $0 bail for some offenses in April was driven by concerns that jails could be heavily impacted by COVID-19.

Local law enforcement officials, though, voiced concerns regarding the policy, saying it took power away from local officials who would be in a better position to adequately assess the risks to their specific inmate populations and the safety of their communities.

“The issue with this is the Judicial Council made this decision statewide, it was a blanket order,” Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said during an April 13 Facebook live stream shortly after the policy was announced.

“Rather than taking a look at what individual counties have already done to make sure that we have our population at a level where we can handle a COVID-19 outbreak in our local jails which Fresno County has done,” Sheriff Mims said. Mims added that they had already taken steps to screen inmates and personnel who entered the facilities.

While jails in Fresno County have fared well in dealing with COVID-19, other jails and prisons have not. State-run facilities in Avenal and Corcoran in Kings County have been heavily impacted by COVID-19. Data from the Kings County Department of Health website lists a total of 926 cases stemming from prisons within the county, in comparison to 641 cases outside the prisons.

Earlier in the week, the chair members of the California Judicial Council’s six internal committees jointly recommended to the full council that they vote to end the $0 bail program and shift control to local officials.

“The chairs of the Judicial Council’s six internal committees now recommend that the council reflect these changed statewide and local circumstances by repealing the statewide COVID-19 bail rule and directing the courts to adopt bail schedules based on local conditions,” the recommendation from the committee chair members said.

A shift to local control in the state’s judicial branch would reflect decisions by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who in recent weeks has handed some control of reopening to the governments of individual counties rather than the state-wide approach that had begun to frustrate many local officials.

Martin Hoshino, the Judicial Council Administrative Director, said in a press release that the rules enacted by the council had accomplished what they intended to do, and because of that a “statewide rule no longer serves our need to be flexible and responsive based on local health conditions.”

Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig spoke with the Clovis Roundup before the vote and expressed his wish for the Judicial Council to end the policy.

“What we have really seen is that by releasing a lot of these criminals with zero dollar bail, they’ve gone out and committed new crimes. Those new crimes and the victims that have been impacted by these new crimes are really unmeasurable,” Magsig said, adding that he felt the $0 bail rule had left many police departments powerless to prevent crimes or carry out punishments.

“If there is nothing the police can do to stop them, that really infuriates me because you really don’t have a society unless you have law and order in place, and either the public voluntarily abide by the rules, or those who break them know that there are no consequences,” Magsig said.

Magsig told the Roundup that he has full confidence that the Fresno County Sheriff’s office and the jail staff in Fresno will be able to handle or prevent an outbreak of COVID-19 in the jail.

“I can appreciate the facts that months ago, the Judicial Council had to weigh public health with public safety but I think now what we have seen happen, public safety should outweigh their public health concerns,” Magsig said.

The council left open the possibility that it could reinstate the rules, saying it “may re-institute these measures if health conditions worsen or change.”

It should be noted that Gov. Newsom and the state legislature have virtually no control over the Judicial Council, as its 21 voting members are appointed independently by the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, Tani Cantil-Sakauye.

Ryan graduated from Buchanan High School in 2018 and is currently a student at Clovis Community College and plans to transfer to a four-year school to complete a degree in journalism or political science. Ryan was born in Pennsylvania, has lived in four states, and thinks the Yankees need to be more creative with the design of their batting practice hats.