Offenders Offered Cash-Free Bail Three Times More Likely to Commit Violence, California Study Finds

Arrested individuals released on cash-free or low-cost bail were much more likely to re-offend than those who posted bail, including committing new violent offenses 200 percent more often, according to a new study by the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office in Northern California.

The Yolo County study, released in early February, comes as cities and states around the country are experimenting with eliminating cash bail, claiming that it criminalizes poverty and disproportionately affects minorities.

The study stems from an emergency zero-bail policy that was in effect in Yolo County from April 2020 through May 2021. As part of the policy, most people arrested on misdemeanor or non-violent felony charges “were immediately released from jail after booking without conditions and without further inquiry by the courts,” the study states.

The study analyzed a random sample of 100 people who were arrested in Yolo County and released while the emergency zero-bail policy was in effect. It compared their results to 100 people who were arrested and posted bail in 2018 and 2019.

The study found that individuals released on zero bail were rearrested for 163 percent more crimes than those who had posted bail. The study also found that people released without bail reoffended at an average rate that was 70 percent higher than those who posted bail, committed felonies 90 percent more often, committed misdemeanors 123 percent more often, and committed new violent offenses 200 percent more often than those who posted bail.

“The impacts of zero bail on violent crime are obvious, and they’re horrific,” Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig told Fox News. “I mean, we have more people being shot at, stabbed, assaulted, robbed, beaten. These are real victims–and the numbers are staggering under zero bail.”

Reisig called zero bail “a completely failed policy.”

“It was really important to do this study to have data available to those lawmakers in California who continue to believe that this is the answer to all of the problems in the criminal justice system, that zero bail is somehow going to make things better,” he said.

Yolo County’s study comes after the District Attorney’s Office released a similar research brief in August, which found that of the nearly 600 individuals offered cash-free bail, over 70 percent went on to re-offend.

However, supporters of zero bail were unconvinced, noting that the August research only looked at suspects released without bail, and did not have a control group. The new study included a control group, and found similar results.

“Many of us saw this coming and sounded the alarm,” Joseph Giacalone, a retired New York Police Department sergeant and criminal justice professor, told Fox. “All we got for it was the label ‘fear-mongerer.'”