FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For More Information Contact: Gloria 

The California Bail Agents Association understand the reason behind the emergency regulations adopted by the California Judicial Council on April 6, 2020.

We understand that COVID-19 has created an environment where all precautions must be taken to ensure that we are doing everything within our control to stop the growth of this virus in our communities. 

However, we still feel that it is our duty to caution the Judicial Council that reducing bail to $0 for many of these crimes, especially property crimes, has the real potential to create an environment where those arrested will never return to court voluntarily to answer for their actions. 

We feel it is important to remind the Council that the requirement of bail creates an incentive for arrestees to return to court and answer to the charges.  Reducing the bail for so many offenses to $0 effectively removes this incentive again, while we support the Judicial Council’s action to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our communities, we remain very concerned that  $0 bail for so many offenses will lead to a steep increase in failures to appear by those charged with crimes in our communities.