Facing extinction, California bond firms decry bill ending cash bail, launch ballot drive
“The bill was held up as a more equitable form of criminal justice, since the cash bail system often keeps poor people in jail before trial because they can’t afford to pay their way out. More than 48,000 county jail inmates in California — two-thirds of the jail population — have not yet been convicted of a crime, and most of them are being held because they are unable to post bail, according to a recent state study.”