The Orange County Bail/Bond Justice project began in 2019 with the goal of changing unjust bail practices in Orange County’s criminal justice system. According to a new report from the non-profit, efforts made in 2020 have led to improvements.
Founded with the goals of helping those who need assistance paying their bail and preventing defendants from being held in jail for long period before their trials, the Orange County Bail/Bond Justice group began to search for how to address such local shortcomings.
Kimberly Brewer, who chairs the non-profit, recently spoke with 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck about the group’s efforts in 2020. She said when the organization began observing bail hearings, there were clear examples of people held in Orange County’s Detention Center for pretrial hearings solely because of their financial status.
“What we found was a great number of people who were being held in jail were because they simply didn’t have the resources to pay their bail,” said Brewer. “This was having a profound impact on poor people in our community, and people of color. What we found was really two different systems of justice in Orange County.”
As part of Orange County Bail/Bond Justice’s initial step to address these inequities, the non-profit released 14 recommendations for reform at the start of 2020. They included steps as simple as properly following bail and bond guidance put in place by the state and district, which Brewer said was inconsistently applied. Others included expanding the use of citations and individualizing conditions of release for detainees based on their ability to pay.
In its most recent quarterly report, the non-profit said there has been a 68% reduction in pre-trial individuals entering the Orange County Detention Center from August through September compared to the previous year. The county government also reported a 55% drop in pre-trial population from January.
Brewer said this is partially due to local leaders who are in the criminal justice system re-focusing their efforts to this cause.
“The good news is that we are seeing big progress in the reforms we recommended,” she said. “That’s leading to a drastic reduction in the people being detained pre-trial. We’re happy about the results, but we’re very thankful to the decision-makers, the judges, sheriffs, police chiefs, court officials, who really rolled up their sleeves and made these reforms happen.”
A recent example of change came in October, when Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour approved the use of bail reform tools in the county’s court system. The adopted policies allow magistrates to use a structured, decision-making program to determine whether detainees should receive a bond or a written request to appear based on financial status. Baddour’s decision also approved new policies to better address first-time failures to appear in court for individuals facing misdemeanor charges.
In addition to these immediate reforms, one other part of 2020 led to the reduction in pre-trial detainees: COVID-19. The pandemic has led to limited interactions within the Orange County Detention Center, its court system and other aspects of the justice system in order to protect public health.
Brewer said while the coronavirus caused some of the temporary changes to the pre-trial process, the Orange County Bail/Bond Justice project is aiming for some aspects of the changes to become permanently adopted.
“One reason we want to do a progress report now is to highlight the progress that’s been made,” she explained, “but also to say ‘we don’t want to go back to the old way of doing business’ after the pandemic subsides. That’s a really important message here for our community: we need to have appreciation, but we also need to have accountability going forward.”
Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees. You can support local journalism and our mission to serve the community. Contribute today – every single dollar matters.
