SAN FRANCISCO – Prosecutors in San Francisco will no longer request payment as a condition for pretrial release, newly elected District Attorney Chesa Boudin recently announced.
With the elimination, whether or not someone will remain incarcerated until trial will be determined by degree of flight risk, attorneys and prosecutors were told.
“By replacing money bail with a risk-based system, people who are safe to be released get released quickly with appropriate, nonmonetary conditions, and those who pose a serious threat to public safety are detained, regardless of their wealth,” the DA’s office wrote in a statement sent to The Record.
“For years I’ve been fighting to end this discriminatory and unsafe approach to pretrial detention,” Boudin said to the San Francisco Chronicle, following his monumental announcement. “From this point forward, pretrial detention will be based on public safety, not on wealth.”
A recent report released by the DA’s office stated that U.S. taxpayers spend upwards of $38 million per day to jail people who are awaiting trial. Boudin hopes to cut those figures down -- at least in his city.
“Money bail has disproportionately impacted our poorest communities, as well as communities of color,” the DA’s office wrote. “In San Francisco, African-Americans pay over $120 per capita per year in nonrefundable bail fees compared to $10 per capita per year for white individuals. Additionally, since 99% of people who post bail in San Francisco use private bail bond companies, there is an instant and dramatic transfer of wealth from low-income neighborhoods and communities of color to private industry; roughly $10 to $15 million in nonrefundable fees are paid annually to bail bond agencies.”
Boudin, who was elected in November and sworn in in January, was expected to make big changes upon his arrival and is already living up to those expectations.
“The people of San Francisco have sent a powerful and clear message,” said Boudin following November’s campaign victory. “It’s time for radical change to how we envision justice.”
The San Francisco Police Department declined to comment.