Friday, July 15, 2011

If you haven’t seen the recent op-ed from Nina Salerno Ashford regarding the timeliness of implementing post-conviction bail in California, than please click on the link to read it.

Once you do, I am sure you will agree with me that it makes tremendous sense. As she correctly points out, the State's realignment plan will shift State prisoners to already over-crowded local jail facilities. Post-conviction bail is a valuable tool to help alleviate jail overcrowding by allowing certain offenders, at the discretion of the court, to serve all or part of his or her sentence out of custody on a post-conviction bail. This is a thoughtful approach to jail population management that takes advantage of the public safety-minded benefits of the well-established bail system in California.

The concept of post-conviction bail is not an entirely novel idea. AIA, along with many other sureties, worked together over 10 years ago to craft a post-conviction bond model bill. Since that time, several states have passed such legislation. Nowhere in the country is this concept more appropriate than in California, due to the extreme need for public safety solutions to California's prison and jail overcrowding and the current plan of realigning a portion of the State's prisoners to local jails. The American Bail Coalition, along with CBAA and GSBAA are working together, to try to make post-conviction bonds a reality in California.

I look forward to hearing your comments.