An alarming report from California has revealed that more than 70 percent of criminal suspects released without bail between 2020 and 2021 in Yolo County committed new crimes, according to Fox News.
The story quoted Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig, who issued a statement Monday observing, “When over 70% of the people released under mandated $0 bail policies go on to commit additional crime(s), including violent offenses such as robbery and murder, there is simply no rational public safety-related basis to continue such a practice post-pandemic, especially in light of the increasing violent crime rates across California.”
He might get some blowback from Meredith Gallen and Garrett Miller, members of the board of directors of the Los Angeles County Public Defenders Union Local 1489, who wrote in a June Op-Ed appearing in the Los Angeles Times “that the cash bail system is unfair, fails to promote public safety and does far more harm than good for families and communities affected by the criminal legal system.”
Such contentions may play well with California liberals, but then along come cases such as the one involving Eugene Clark, a recidivist New York criminal who was on parole when he attacked a man named Ramon Luna, who ultimately died from his injuries.
When Clark was indicted for murder, prosecutors wanted him held without bail. Instead, according to the New York Post, Judge April Newbauer released Clark on his own recognizance.
Then there is the case of Wilson Medina Cruz, charged with the murder of his “estranged” girlfriend, who also was the mother of his child. According to a narrative at the MacIver Institute site, at the time he was out of jail on “signature bond.”
Back in California’s Yolo County, two months ago, DA Risig’s office started tracking criminal suspects who were released without bail. According to Fox News, “Of the 595 individuals released on $0 bail between 2020 and 2021 in Yolo County, 420 — or 70.6% — were rearrested for new crimes, and 123 — or 20% — were arrested for a violent crime such as murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery, carjacking or domestic violence.”
The Fox report said the California Judicial Council “rescinded its $0 bail order in June 2020, but some counties kept the policy in place.”
