70% of arrestees who were released under a new “zero cash bail” policy in Yolo County, California, west of Sacramento, were rearrested, according to a study conducted by the local district attorney’s office and published by the Sacramento Bee.
The Bee noted:
In April 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the California Judicial Council took the step of imposing a statewide emergency bail schedule, ending the requirement of cash bail for low-level offenders in a bid to reduce the spread of the virus among inmates.
The order set bail at $0 for most misdemeanor and lower-level felony charges. The emergency order was lifted in June 2020, though individual counties were permitted to make their own decisions on whether to keep $0 bail in place.
…
Out of 595 people [in Yolo County] who were released on $0 bail during that period [until June 2021], 420 were re-arrested, with 123 of them arrested for violent crimes, with charges ranging from murder and attempted murder to kidnapping, robbery, carjacking and domestic violence.
“Progressive” prosecutors and Democratic politicians — including former California Attorney General Kamala Harris — have pushed for “zero cash bail” or bail “reform,” often without regard to the consequences for public safety.
“Zero cash bail” and lenient parole have been associated with recidivism in many American cities, with some of the released offenders going on to commit shocking, violent crimes.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.