COVID-19 concerns will result in release of up to 300 Stanislaus County Jail inmates
On Monday between 150 and 350 inmates, or as much as a quarter of the jail population in Stanislaus County, will be released from custody as a result of a statewide emergency bail schedule intended to slow or prevent the spread of COVID-19 among the incarcerated population.
The Judicial Council of California on April 6 established the temporary bail schedule that reduced to $0 the bail for most misdemeanor and some low-level felony offenses. It applies to accused inmates whose cases have not been adjudicated and anyone arrested on the applicable crimes while the emergency rule is in place.
“I am very concerned about many of the crimes that would permit zero bail: elder abuse, brandishing a weapon, auto theft, escape … the list goes on,” Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager said in an email. “Even so called ‘lesser offenses’ when committed over and over again by the same person pose significant threats to public safety and quality of life.”
Other crimes with $0 bail include possession of heroin or cocaine for sale and possession of a firearm by a gang member, said Stanislaus County Sheriff Jeff Dirkse. He said nearly all misdemeanors qualify, with the exception of driving under the influence and domestic violence.
Bail remains for people held for serious and violent felonies and sex crimes and is determined based on each county’s existing bail schedule.
A report prepared for the council’s decision spelled out the “vital role” courts play in reducing the numbers of inmates in custody while protecting their health and that of the many who work in the jails, transport defendants to court, then return to their communities.
In a press release, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, chair of the Judicial Council, said in developing the emergency rule the council considered suggestions from justice system partners, the public and courts but that, “We are at this point with no guidance in history, law or precedent. And to say that there is no playbook is a gross understatement of the situation.”
The Judicial Council received about 100 letters of public comment prior to the meeting, that included input from judges, lawmakers, district attorneys, public defenders, probation officers, lawyers in private practice, legal aid groups, unions and more, said Judicial Council spokeswoman Merrill Balassone.
Fladager said she understands the “Council believed that they needed to take quick action, but I believe this was done too hastily and without adequate opportunity for meaningful input from those of us on the front lines.”
Her office has been working with the Sheriff’s Department to identify eligible inmates.
Dirkse said initial estimates identified as many as 350 inmates whose charges alone qualify for $0 bail but said that could be reduced to as low as 150 after each case is individually assessed for applicable bail enhancements and risks to public safety.
Fladager said her office will request the court set bail reviews for those offenders, citing one superior court judge’s analysis of the emergency rule that judges will retain their discretion to set bail above the new bail schedule in cases where there is a concern for public safety or the likelihood that a defendant will fail to show up for court.
The final numbers will be determined by Monday, Dirkse said, and the inmates will be released in phases throughout the day, not all at once.
“I think that it is very short-sighted and that the Council, while they may be trying to protect the health of inmates and criminals, are not thinking about the overall health and safety of our community,” said Modesto Police Chief Galen Carroll.
He said his department will not “be turning a blind eye” to criminal activity. He’s instructed his officers to continue arresting and booking suspects, rather than citing them out on $0 bail crimes.
“Even if it only prevents them from doing crime for however long it takes them to get out of jail and back to their house, we are still going to enforce the laws,” Carroll said.
Dirkse said anyone who is booked and eligible for $0 bail will be in and out of jail in about two hours.
He said his department has already seen an increase in theft related crimes as well as domestic violence.
Carroll said Modesto has actually seen a decrease in calls for service and most crimes apart from a slight increase in vehicle burglaries and auto theft.
Looting, a crime charged along with theft when committed during a state of emergency like the coronarvirus pandemic, is still eligible for bail.
Bail for looting in Stanislaus County, depending on whether it is charged as a misdemeanor or felony, can range from $2,000 to $15,000. Fladager’s office has charged at least 10 people with the offense so far.
Sheriff, Modesto chief predict increase in crime
Still, both Carroll and Dirkse believe theft will increase dramatically.
Stanislaus County Public Defender Laura Arnold has a different perspective.
“I agree with the judicial council’s decision; I think that it is tempered in that it correctly balances the public safety risk of release against the constitutional rights of these confined, preemptively innocent, individuals,” she said. “Incarceration isn’t an answer to everything in society.”
Stanislaus, like every other superior court in the state, in response to the coronavirus got an order from Cantil-Sakauye to extend the time requirements for preliminary hearings and jury trials, and is rescheduling most other criminal hearings.
Arnold said many of the cases are being effectively suspended until the pandemic is over so the defendants who couldn’t post bail would have languished in jail until their cases could be heard.
“They would have been sitting in jail, unable to earn income to help their families and unable to take appropriate measure to protect themselves,” she said.
Arnold said her biggest concern is losing track of some of the defendants, especially those without housing, and getting them the services they need to succeed.
She said she has asked the sheriff to give every released defendant contact information for her office and plans to have extra people working the phones Tuesday and Wednesday.
She said her staff will direct them to appropriate services for housing, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, veteran services and mental health services.
Inmates ‘ready for change’?
“The people who are released will do one of two things, try to get their lives back on track” which would benefit them with any court case “or they won’t.” Arnold said. “You never know when someone is ready for change.”
Dirkse said he is also concerned about releasing inmates with no plan to help prevent recidivism or mechanism to keep track of them.
He said some released defendants might get ankle monitors if that is part of their probation terms but the vast majority will not.
Dirkse said most of the rehabilitative services inside the jail are currently suspended because they aren’t letting anyone other than staff and booking officers into the facility.
No inmate in the Stanislaus County jail has tested positive for COVID-19. Four inmates showing symptoms were isolated and tested with negative results.
Dirkse said the jail is not overcrowded like others in the state and that he implemented early interventions like screening and taking the temperature of everyone who enters, restricting entry only to law enforcement and creating a “reception area” where inmates can be isolated for 14 days before entering the general population.
“This is forced on us by the state of California to do this. We have quite frankly, if not the most sophisticated jail in the state, one of them,” he said. “It is one of the newest facilities, one of the most secure, most up to date, we have an entire hospital here. So this is not something that we would need to do. I had zero intention of ever releasing inmates around the virus.”
He thinks more people being released, rearrested and booked, then let back out into the community might actually pose a greater risk of introducing COVID-19 into the jail.
Furthermore, he said most of the inmates would get better access to medical care within the facilities were they are regularly monitored.
The Judicial Council’s emergency rule will remain in effect for 90 days after the lifting of the statewide coronavirus emergency rule or until it is rescinded by the council.
This story was originally published April 12, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "COVID-19 concerns will result in release of up to 300 Stanislaus County Jail inmates."
