The contrast between getting arrested when you have the funds to bail out vs. when you don’t have the money was on full display on a recent morning at the Los Angeles County Superior Court building in Van Nuys. There, a judge held a bail hearing for Fraser Michael Bohm, 22, accused of killing four Pepperdine University students on Pacific Coast Highway in October when he struck the students with his BMW at more than 100 miles per hour, according to authorities.
The bail amount: $4 million for multiple counts of murder and vehicular manslaughter. Bohm’s affluent family posted the sum, and Bohm’s now out of jail as he awaits trial.
But what if a defendant doesn’t have money to afford bail and the freedom that paying it brings? James White knows about that.
White, who was at the same Van Nuys courthouse the morning of Bohm’s bail hearing, was once arrested for small-time drug possession but couldn’t afford the $1,500 bail amount set for him and stayed in jail for several days.
“If you don’t have the money or family to help you out, you're going to sit there and suffer,” says White. “Nobody wants to be in jail. It really sucks.”
Fraser Michael Bohm and James White are examples of the central role money has long played in determining who stays behind bars and who doesn’t in the criminal justice system.
But a judge’s ruling earlier this year ended Los Angeles County’s money bail system for all kinds of criminal offenses. Now, most people who are arrested for non-violent, non-serious misdemeanors and felonies, which includes most thefts and vehicle violations, are released quickly after arrest and without paying a single cent of bail.
That has criminal justice reform advocates cheering. Alicia Virani with UCLA’s Pretrial Justice Clinic calls the money bail system discriminatory and unfair.
“It is unjust because the … same two people charged with the same crimes, same criminal history, same everything, one person has the funds to pay their bail amount and can secure their release pretrial and go on living their life,” says Virani. “And the other person is unable to simply because of what is not in their wallets, which leads to a whole host of negative collateral consequences for the individual who cannot pay.”
A recently released study by the LA Superior Court shows that the first weeks of LA County’s bail reforms seem to be working, with a tiny fraction of people who’ve been booked and then released without paying bail getting rebooked.
Reform advocates say that shows it’s possible to remedy injustices in the bail system while keeping the people of LA County safe.
But the elimination of money bail as a remedy to inequity has sparked a backlash in a county where concerns about crime are high because of incidents like a spate of smash-and-grab robberies.
More than two dozen cities in LA County — including Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Lancaster, and Downey — have sued the county over its bail reforms, arguing they’re a threat to public safety.
“The message we’re sending criminals is: There’s immunity,” says Claudia Frometa, the mayor of Downey.
There’s also opposition to bail reform within the criminal justice system.
“My fear is that people who should be in custody are not in custody,” says Eric Siddall, an LA County deputy district attorney who’s now a candidate for D.A. “It is very logical that someone who has a gun, who is a serious or violent felon should not be roaming the streets immediately after they were caught with their gun. I think it's extremely dangerous because a violent felon with a gun is basically an attempted murder waiting to happen.”
But David Slayton, the executive officer of LA County’s Superior Court, says what’s dangerous is the amount of bail reform misinformation and exaggeration out there.
“What I’ve heard people talk about is that there’s no accountability, that no one can be booked in the jail anymore, that it’s catch and release,” says Slayton. “And every single one of those statements is 100% false.”
Slayton reminds the public that capital crimes, such as murder, still aren’t eligible for zero money bail release, like Fraser Michael Bohn charged with killing the four Pepperdine students.
And many people accused of certain offenses, such as sexual battery, are now subject to a judicial magistrate’s review of their full criminal record before they’re let go without bail.
Reform advocates say that means people who would have automatically left custody if they could post bail before bail reform — will now stay behind bars.
“What's changed now is that instead of focusing on the money situation, we are doing an individualized determination of each person's risk to the public, and risk to the victim's safety, and risk of not showing back up to court,” Slayton says.