Incarcerated Without Trial: The Reality of Jail Overcrowding in California
Page Media
Because the state will no longer take most people convicted of low-level felony offenses into state facilities, there is a common—but mistaken—perception at the local level that jail construction is essential.
As sheriffs have readily admitted, county jails are not full of individuals who have been convicted of crimes, or even individuals thought to present a high public safety risk to the community. Most people in county jails have not been convicted of a crime. More than 71 percent of the 71,000 Californians held in county jails on any given day are awaiting their day in court. Most of them do not pose a risk to public safety but are stuck behind bars because they simply cannot afford bail.
High rates of pretrial detention are a threat both to public safety and civil liberties. People with financial resources are able to get out of jail and return to their jobs, families, and communities. People who are unable to pay for bail or raise the necessary collateral, however, must stay in jail awaiting a trial date that could be months away. Or, they may more readily decide to accept a plea bargain as a means of getting out of jail. These results have nothing to do with public safety. They have everything to do with wealth and poverty. People with money are able to buy their freedom while poor people cannot.
Efforts to create new jail capacity not only ignore the utterly failed state prison expansion and overcrowding experience; they also turn a blind eye to the reality of jail overcrowding in California and to the new powers given to counties to better manage their jail populations. Rather than expand jail capacity, counties should implement evidence-based practices to manage both pretrial and sentenced populations.
Learn more:
Statewide Poll Finds Strong Support for Alternatives to Jail for Non-Violent Offenders
It's Time to Fix California's Broken Criminal Justice System
CA FWD Report: California criminal justice could rethink treatment of pre-trial detainees
