2023-10-17 CC Agenda - Public Communication - Misc. - Bail Policy2023-..10-17 dI::II
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Harada. Patricia
Subject: FW: Vera Institute Public Comment on Bail Policy
Attachments: El Segundo - Vera Written Public Comment for City Council - Bail Policy.pdf
From: Claire Simonich <csimonich@vera.or,
Date: October 17, 2023 at 12:02:35 PM PDT
To: *ALL CITY COUNCIL <allcouncii else undo.or
Subject: Vera Institute Public Comment on Bail Policy
Dear El Segundo City Councilmembers,
My name is Claire Simonich. I live in Los Angeles and am the Associate Director of Vera California, a local
initiative of the Vera Institute of Justice, which advances policies and practices that will make California
a model for promoting community safety, ending mass incarceration, and advancing racial justice.
Please see the attachment for my public comment on the court's new bail policy. If you have any trouble
accessing the document, please let me know and I can resend it.
Warmly,
Claire
Claire Simonich
Associate Director, Vera California
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634 South Spring Street, #300A
Los Angeles, CA 90014
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October 17, 2023
El Segundo City Council:
Via email: allcouncllCa)eh
Mayor Drew Boyles
Vice Mayor Chris Pimentel
Councilmember Carol Pirsztuk
Councilmember Lance Giroux
Councilmember Ryan Baldino
Re: Support — Implementation of the Superior Court's new bail policy, the
Pre -Arraignment Release Protocols (PARP)
Dear El Segundo City Council,
My name is Claire Simonich. I live in Los Angeles and am the associate director of Vera
California, a local initiative of the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) advancing policies and
practices that will make California a model for ending mass incarceration, promoting
community safety, and advancing racial justice. Vera has worked on pretrial policy
across the country —from Michigan to Kentucky to New Jersey —for more than 6o years.
We are writing to share research, data, and factual information regarding the Superior
Court's new bail policy, the Pre -Arraignment Release Protocols (PARP), which is a step
forward towards a more fair, just, and safe pretrial system.
The PARP policy rightfully shifts away from money bail and recommends
administrative release for people charged with misdemeanors and low-level
felonies.
The court's policy does not represent a radical change in the pretrial system and instead
builds off years of similar bail policies and assessment of those policies. For the past
three years, the county has had a bail schedule (often called the "emergency bail
schedule" or EBS) on and off where many people charged with low-level offenses were
released through administrative means, like citations, instead of having traditional cash
bail imposed. Like the emergency bail schedule, the PARP policy recommends
administrative release for low-level offenses. The policies of having pre -arraignment
magistrate reviews and a money bail system for people detained until arraignment
continue.
634 S Spring Street, #300A, Los Angeles, CA 90014 t M 416 0068 1 213 416 0076 voi cuoirg
Extensive research demonstrates that reforms like the PARP policy are
good for public safety.
Vera analyze the Los Angeles Police Department's own data from the EBS period and
found that violent crime and property crime in Los Angeles were lower or remained
effectively unchanged under the EBS from the two-year period before the policy. As in
Los Angeles, studies from around the country repeatedly find that reforms like the
PARP policy are not linked to an increase in violent or nonviolent crime. The courts in
Harris County, Texas —home to Houston —issued a standing order in 2019 for most
people charged with misdemeanors to be released without money bond. An independent
federal monitor tasked with analyzing the data found that far more people are now being
released pretrial and that these higher release rates did not translate to higher rearrest
rates —rearrest rates have stayed largely constant from before and after the policy
change.
The Kentucky Supreme Court issued statewide orders similar to what is in the PARP,
including release for nonviolent and nonsexual lower level felonies, and found that the
data showed releasing more people does not compromise public safety. In 2017, the
court mandated administrative pretrial release for most misdemeanors; 92 percent of
those released were not rearrested. In 2020, after the policy expanded to include the
aforementioned felonies, rearrest remained low and 89 percent of people were not
rearrested.
In New York, despite the fearmongering around bail reform, a rigorous academic study
found that it reduced overall re -arrest and felony re -arrest among, peo,pie released under
correlation between bail reform policies and an increase in violent crime. These research
findings counter false claims that the PARP policy is likely to increase crime.
The Council should not be swayed by critics' fearmongering and misleading
claims.
Critics of the PARP policy frequently cite the Yolo County District Attorney's reports
claiming their emergency bail schedule led to a huge increase in crime. The Yolo County
DA reports should not be credited because they are significantly flawed. They are based
on a small sample size —one study was of too people (compared to the tens of thousands
studied in Houston's or Kentucky's policies which are similar in scope to PARP's)—and
without establishing the proper research protocols that would show a discrete policy
change causing a specific outcome (e.g., increased arrests). The robust research on
similar policies with larger sample sizes —including from Los Angeles itself —should
inform the Council.
634 S Spring Street, #300A, Los Angeles, CA 90014 a 213 416 0058 G 213 416 0075 amora 011 a
Ultimately, more pretrial detention will not benefit public safety, nor
justice.
Research demonstrates that just 24 hours in jail increases the likelihood that someone
will be arrested again because of the destabilizing effect of detention and the resulting
loss of jobs, housing, and community ties.
In addition to building safety, PARP serves justice. Only those who cannot pay
experience the harms of pretrial detention, from the horrors of jail to housing instability
or homelessness. The PARP policy ensures that a person's wealth does not determine
whether they are free or in jail.
By following the research on public safety and policies like PARP, we have an
opportunity to spare many people the harmful destabilization of pretrial incarceration
and spare Angelenos the results of such destabilization. El Segundo's City Council
should speak out in support of the Superior Court's new bail policy, educate the public
about its public safety benefits, and encourage the court to monitor and share data
analysis on implementation at regular intervals.
Sincerely,
Claire Simonich
Initiative Associate Director
Vera California
634 S Spring Street, #300A, Los Angeles, CA 90014 213 416 0058 f 213 416 0076 Voir cill.0vtl