A Third of Zero-Bail Releasees Rearrested for New Offenses

One third of persons released during an emergency zero-bail period in one California county were rearrested for a new crime within a six month period, Walter Makaula reports for KCRA, Sacramento.

The data come from Yolo County, the next county west of Sacramento. Yolo is a diverse county. It includes Woodland, a small city in the heart of an agricultural area, West Sacramento, a largely industrial appendage to California’s capital city, and Davis, a college town also known as “the People’s Republic of Davis,” sometimes affectionately and sometimes not.

About 300 persons have been released on zero bail, and about 100 of them have been rearrested. Altogether, these re-arrestees are charged with committing 304 new crimes, of which 123 are felonies. Bear in mind that since Proposition 47, “felony” implies a more serious crime than it used to.

“As recently as a couple weeks ago, we had an individual who had been arrested and released four prior times who was then arrested for attempted murder with use of a knife,” [Yolo County Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Melinda] Aiello said.

Other reoffenses include domestic violence, robbery, burglary, assault and crimes involving weapons. In April, the judicial council mandated the use of a statewide $0 emergency bail schedule but then rescinded that order in June.

The Yolo County Superior Court decided to keep it in place and has not said when it will end. People in the community said their safety is more important than a criminal getting COVID while in jail.

Why keep such a drastic measure in place? Is it because the Yolo County Jail is a pandemic hot spot? The number of jail inmates testing positive so far is zero, according to the report.

Also bear in mind that the number of crimes “cleared by arrest” is only about a fifth of the number committed. See this post. If 304 crimes that could have been prevented were cleared by arrest, the number committed is well over a thousand.