In 2017, we mobilized public health support for the early California Money Bail Reform Act. In 2018 the Act changed significantly, and many of the original sponsors withdrew their support. The materials here reflect early versions of the Act.
Overview
We mobilized public health support for the initial version of the California Money Bail Reform Act, state legislation introduced in California in 2017.
All Californians want healthy families and safe communities, and most of us believe our criminal justice system should protect us without putting our health in jeopardy. Yet the money bail system damages public health, compromising the safety and well being of those who are held in jail, their families, and the communities they return to. Under the money bail system, people are held in jail while awaiting trial or sentencing simply because they cannot afford to pay bail. Even short stays in jail can lead to people losing their jobs or homes, and the money bail system disproportionately harms Black and Latinx people, who are more likely to be held pretrial, and are given higher bail amounts than White people with similar charges and histories.
To advocate for the reform of California’s money bail system, we created a fact sheet about the health harms of money bail and gathered endorsements for the Act from public health organizations, as well as individual public health and medical professionals. HIP staff also attended hearings and lobby days in Sacramento to speak out in support of the Act. Our work cultivating public health professionals to speak out about this issue resulted in a published op-ed written by a public health researcher and physician.
After significant changes were made to the initial bill, the California Money Bail Reform Act was signed into law in August 2018.
Who was working on this?
A broad coalition of organizations initially co-sponsored the California Money Bail Reform Act and has spearheaded advocacy work around the bill: ACLU of California, Anti-Recidivism Coalition, California Public Defender Association, Californians for Safety and Justice, Ella Baker Center, Essie Justice Group, Silicon Valley De-Bug, SEIU , and Western Center on Law & Poverty.
