It costs the taxpayers of L.A. County $177 a day to keep someone in the "largest and most costly local jail system in the United States," according to a motion by county supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Hilda Solis. About half the people in those cells are presumed innocent and awaiting trial, and according to Sheriff Jim McDonnell, most in that group can't afford bail.
The proposal is similar to legislation at state and national levels that seeks to address the injustice of bail. State Sen. Bob Hertzberg of Van Nuys and Assemblyman Rob Bonta of Oakland late last year proposed the California Money Bail Reform Act of 2017, which aims to "safely reduce the number of people detained pretrial while addressing racial and economic disparities in the pretrial system," according to draft language.
"We cannot be a nation that believes in freedom and equal justice under the law yet at the same time locks up thousands of people solely because they cannot afford bail," Lieu said in a statement. "We cannot be a nation that believes in the principle of innocent until proven guilty yet incarcerates over 450,000 Americans who have not been convicted of any crime."
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