Oaklandside: Police say ‘zero bail’ increased Oakland’s violent crime rate. Did it?
In April 2020, a growing number of COVID-19 cases pushed the state court system to lower bail to $0 for most misdemeanor and lower-level felony offenses. The emergency bail schedule, the list setting bail at nothing for most types of crimes, was intended to help reduce the number of people being booked into county jails and thereby prevent the virus that causes COVID-19 from harming detainees and jail staff.
It was also a defense against bringing coronavirus back into the community by stopping the flow of people arrested for minor offenses entering and exiting jails after arraignment or posting bail.
And it appeared to have helped in the high-risk settings. Now two years after the California Judicial Council’s order setting emergency bail, which came weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom directed the public to stay home, the emergency bail schedule is credited with avoiding a large number of COVID-19 related deaths in California county jails.
