In early November, another lawsuit begins to echoes in the corridors of ‘justice’. Arousing ancient suspicions about the law’s treatment of those awaiting trial, unable to satisfy its financial consequences. The bail system is back on trial, thanks to the recently announced class action of Public Justice’s Debtors’ Prison Project, in partnership with Civil Rights Corps; Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai LLP; Schonbrun Seplow Harris Hoffman & Zeldes LLP; and Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP. These legal actors are pushing a lawsuit to overturn the LA policy of imprisoning arrested people unable to pay for bail bonds set by the county’s uniform bond schedule; while the main defenders of the status quo are up on the defense; these actors are the following: County and City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), the sheriff of Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), and the chief of the LAPD.
This tragic policy effects thousands of people in LA, the lawsuit action even represents the demand for legal action from six plaintiffs, all of who were held in jail while the suit is being implemented.
Despite last year, the California Supreme Court ruled that “the common practice of conditioning freedom solely on whether an arrestee can afford bail is unconstitutional.” This current case is a historical precedent, a local coalition of attorneys and advocates are working to overturn the policy, using the ruling from the state trail by claiming despite the bail bond was not abolished, the policy still requires that the “courts must consider an arrestee’s ability to pay instead of simply selecting the corresponding dollar amount from a county’s uniform “bail schedule.”
Even as hearings are being made, the plaintiffs still sit in jail, with one having been requested to not remain imprisoned, yet the court still keeps them locked up as the trail moves.
Although the potential for change is bleak, mass legal campaigns like these need to generate, the state will continue to push its antagonizing policies against marginalized and disenfranchised people unhindered if the people don’t respond. Fascism is historical in LA, but its encroaching presence grows stronger every day, in the streets among the corporations and reactionaries, and among the institutions through their city council agents and courts. Our political struggle is a legal and social struggle over our survival and humanity, without these local, aspiring efforts, we won’t have a life to fight for.
For more details on the case, check out KNOCK LA’s article:
Class Action Lawsuit Challenges Pretrial Detention of Arrestees Who Can’t Afford Bail (Nov.19)