San Bernardino County Sheriff Hates the New Emergency Bail Schedule
California’s new $0 cash bail is an emergency mandate by the state which releases dangerous and threatening criminals back into the public only hours after crimes are committed. Hundreds of felons are charged with domestic violence, putting children and others in physical danger.
The San Bernardino Sheriff John McMahon shares his concerns in an interview with FOX 11 News, saying “I just don’t think it’s good government, and it’s not safe to force the release of people on zero bail,” said McMahon. “The people that we have in jail, for the most part, are felons.” The state emergency mandate was taken into effect last Monday, ordering that all misdemeanors some “low-level” felonies will have a cash bail of $0.
“The first night into Tuesday morning, there were 6 people arrested on felonies and were released on zero bail.” The sheriff’s concerns rose when a repeat felony child abuser was released back into public only hours after being charged due to the new emergency mandate policy. The state has given a list of 13 possible exemptions for serious and violent felonies. Felony child abuse isn’t on the list of 13, as well as a handful of over serious crimes which put the public in danger.
While the state’s goal is to jail inmate populations during the COVID-19 pandemic, Sheriff McMahon states “Our jail system has 7,700 beds and our current population today is like 5,020, so there are 2,700 empty beds in our system.” The Sheriff argues that the state isn’t near a dangerous inmate capacity for drastic measures to be in effect. There are roughly 500 new inmates who are eligible for the new state mandate policy.
Sheriff McMahon raises an important concern, bringing up how criminals who judges have previously denied bail for being a threat to the public society are now receiving $0 cash bail now. If they were a threat then, what has changed over the past few months during this time?
McMahon states, “In today’s times, you have to work pretty hard to get into jail, and the folks that are in custody are generally the bad folks, and they’re in jail for a reason.” While the health and safety of the inmates is a priority, the safety of the public is at risk when dangerous, violent people are let out in the open world to commit crimes again.
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