Cash bail is unfair, but so is no-cash bail. Strike a balance
To the editor: I used to be a deputy public defender for 35 years, and I’ve seen the injustice that outcomes from the cash bail system. Nonetheless, changing that with a no-bail system has its personal issues. (“Trump shouldn’t must pay bail,” editorial, Aug. 23)
Underneath a no-bail system, a defendant who’s a minimal flight danger is launched with out bail. However a defendant who’s a flight danger with out bail is held in custody with no chance of launch, even when that defendant wouldn’t be a flight danger if bail had been posted.
In consequence, beneath this sort of no-bail system, many defendants who could possibly be safely launched on bail are held, as a result of bail isn’t out there beneath any circumstances.
There are higher methods. For instance, in lots of states (resembling Pennsylvania and North Carolina), a defendant may be launched upon “unsecured bail.” Because of this the defendant isn’t required to publish any cash upfront, however is liable to pay a hard and fast sum ought to she or he fail to seem.
The impoverished defendant isn’t held in jail because of an incapacity to publish bail, and the defendant who’s a doable flight danger can nonetheless be launched on the situation of a monetary loss upon nonappearance. Research present that unsecured bail is simply as efficient in securing the attendance of defendants as cash bail.
Though reform of cash bail methods is unquestionably crucial, thought have to be given to its substitute to keep away from an equally unfair system.
John Hamilton Scott, Sherman Oaks
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To the editor: Lastly, a optimistic headline about former President Trump. However the topic is one thing your editorial board received’t let up on.
What number of extra “smash and grabs,” meals vendor stick-ups and different numerous robberies and shootings do we want on this nation to make you perceive?
Fortunately, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón has a few yr remaining earlier than he’s seemingly voted out of workplace within the subsequent election. Individuals have had sufficient of the slapping on the wrists.
It’s positively time for change, and never solely within the district lawyer’s workplace.
Richard Whorton, Studio Metropolis
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To the editor: Who may disagree together with your assertion that nobody, not even Trump, ought to must pay money bail?
Why, those that don’t perceive the usually overwhelming penalties of cash bail necessities on these simply scraping by, or others who can not afford cash bail and should resort to bail bondsmen for help and fall right into a entice of endless funds.
Cash bail is an outdated measure that additional removes abnormal folks from a moribund justice system held in sway by vociferous, uninformed public opinion.
There isn’t a simple repair to convey police and native judicial methods to a spot the place the residents, at very least, respect their worth in our democracy. Those that increase their voices for “regulation and order” must be extra conscious of how the system ought to work and the way cash bail damages lives and prices us all.
Carleton Cronin, West Hollywood
