SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Crystal
Patterson didn’t have the cash or assets to post $150,000 bail and get
out of jail after her arrest for assault in October.
So Patterson, 39, promised to
pay a bail bonds company $15,000 plus interest to put up the $150,000
bail for her, allowing to go home and care for her invalid grandmother.
The day after her release, the
district attorney decided not to pursue charges. But Patterson still
owes the bail bonds company. Criminal justice reformers and lawyers at a
nonprofit Washington, D.C., legal clinic say that is unconstitutionally
unfair.
The lawyers have filed a class
action lawsuit on behalf of Patterson, Rianna Buffin and other jail
inmates who argue that San Francisco and California’s bail system
unconstitutionally treats poor and wealthy suspects differently.
Wealthy suspects can put up their
houses or other valuable assets — or simply write a check — to post
bail and stay out of jail until their cases are resolved. Poorer
suspects aren’t so lucky. Many remain behind bars or pay nonrefundable
fees to bail bonds companies.
San Francisco public defender
Chesa Boudin says some of his clients who can’t afford to post bail
plead guilty to minor charges for crimes they didn’t commit so they can
leave jail.
Boudin represented Buffin, 19,
after her arrest for grand theft in October. Buffin couldn’t afford to
post the $30,000 bail or pay a bond company a $3,000 fee and so
contemplated pleading guilty in exchange for a quick release from jail
even though she says her only crime was being with the “wrong people at
the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Fortunately, the district attorney declined to charge Buffin and she was released after being held for three days.
“My family was worried,” said
Ruffin, who lost her $10.50 an hour baggage handler job at the Oakland
International Airport after her arrest.
The lawsuit filed by the Equal
Justice Under Law in San Francisco federal court in October seeks to
abolish the cash bail system in the city, state — and the country. It’s
the ninth lawsuit the center has filed in seven states.
“The bail system in most states
is a two-tiered system,” said center founder Phil Telfeyan. “One for the
wealthy and one for everyone else.”
Telfeyan said a win in
California could add momentum to the center’s goal to rid the country of
the cash bail system, which the lawyers say is used by most county
jails in all 50 states. The federal system usually allows non-violent
suspects free without bail pending trial and denies bail to serious and
violent suspects.
“The country watches what
happens in California,” said Telfeyan, a former Department of Justice
attorney who founded the Washington organization in 2013 with a partner
and the first-ever grant from the Harvard Law School Public Service
Venture Fund in 2013.
Telfeyan said it’s not his goal
to put out of business the classic neon-advertising bail bonding
industry, but conceded the business model would become obsolete if he
convinces courts that the cash bail system is unconstitutional.
The industry didn’t acknowledge Telfeyan’s first lawsuits filed earlier this year.
But on Monday, lawyers for the
California Bail Agents Association filed court papers seeking to
formally oppose the San Francisco lawsuit. The association argues that
government lawyers for San Francisco and the state are offering only
“tepid” opposition to the California lawsuit.
San Francisco Sheriff Ross
Mirkarimi argues that most jail inmates are awaiting resolution of
minor, non-violent crimes and that letting them free while awaiting
court hearings will save the city millions of dollars. Mirkarimi said
non-violent suspects can be monitored electronically and with frequent
visits from law enforcement officials to ensure they don’t flee the area
and attend all their court hearings.
In January, Telfeyan and his
colleagues from Equal Justice Under Law will ask a judge to temporarily
suspend San Francisco’s cash bail system until the lawsuit is resolved.
Telfeyan said a victory in San Francisco and the elimination of cash
bail in the city will most likely lead to the abolition of cash bail in
all of the state’s 58 counties.
Maggie Kreins, who is president
of bail agents group, the says the longtime system of putting up money
or an insurance-backed bail bond is better at getting people to show up
in court and it saves the public costs of monitoring defendants or
hunting down bail jumpers.
Kreins said that California’s
“bail schedule” could be reformed to lower bail amounts for minor
crimes, but that scrapping the system completely would be a mistake.
“What is the incentive to go to court if you don’t lose anything for failing to appear?” Kreins said.
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