Governor Jerry Brown yesterday “ushered in one of the most sweeping criminal justice reforms of his administration, signing a bill abolishing the state’s current money bail system, and replacing it with one that grants judges greater power to decide who should remain incarcerated ahead of trial” (link added), the Los Angeles Time reports.
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye attended the signing ceremony. In a statement, she said, “This is a transformative day for our justice system. Our old system of money bail was outdated, unsafe, and unfair.”
The Chief Justice has championed the issue of pretrial detention reform. At her most recent State of the Judiciary speech, she cited then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s Congressional testimony that the money bail system is a “vehicle for systematic injustice” and she labeled his 1964 statement a “clarion call for justice.” She also highlighted the recommendations of the Pretrial Detention Reform Workgroup that she had established.
The legislation — although not effective until October 2019 — might moot a high-profile bail case presently pending before the Supreme Court, In re Humphrey. But there is another pending bail case — In re White — that might not be moot because, unlike in Humphrey, the White petitioner is apparently still in custody without bail.