Cash bail reform came to Missouri. It hasn’t made much difference in Jackson County.
Bond reform was intended to protect the rights of poor defendants and ease pressure on overflowing jails throughout Missouri by prioritizing options like house arrest and GPS monitoring.
But since new rules were implemented July 1, they appear to be having little impact.
Handed down by the Supreme Court of Missouri, the guidelines say courts should impose the least restrictive conditions for release, while taking into account community safety and the need for defendants to show up in court.
Criminal justice reforms around the country have reduced or eliminated the use of monetary bond, propelled by advocates who say it creates two justice systems — one for the wealthy and another for the poor — that also contributes to mass incarceration.
But Matthew Mueller, bond litigation counsel for the Missouri State Public Defender’s system, said judges continue to set a monetary bond in nearly every felony case he’s come across since July 1.
”If you take a bird’s eye view of the problem, in my view, very little changed,” Mueller said.
Advocates for the rule change said they would expect to see a drop in jail populations across the state. But in several counties, that hasn’t happened.
The Jackson County jail, which has been plagued with serious problems including lawsuits alleging rape, unsanitary conditions and security lapses, is more than 20% over its recommended operational capacity.
In May, the average daily population at the Jackson County Detention Center was 834 inmates, according to data provided by the jail.
But in July, after the rule went into effect, the average increased to 875 inmates.
In November, it was again at 834.
‘Very little effect’
Monetary bond continues to be routinely set in serious cases as well as lesser felonies.
At a Dec. 12 hearing in Jackson County, public defender Edward Berrigan cited the bond rule without success.
His 17-year-old client was accused of second-degree murder and armed criminal action, and bond had been set at $150,000.
Berrigan said in court that the teen was missing high school classes and asked that he be released to his mother under house arrest.
The judge said she was aware of the bond rule, but denied the request because of the nature of the charges.
In another case, a Kansas City man was charged Dec. 13 with resisting arrest. An arrest warrant was issued requiring a $15,000 bond and house arrest. The cash bond remained in place for 10 days while the man, who had no criminal record in Missouri’s online court records, remained in jail.
The jail spends $110 per day, per inmate, though it can be far higher if a person has medical requirements, jail officials said.
A snapshot from earlier this month showed that hundreds of inmates in the Jackson County jail were being held for serious crimes including murder.
But defendants were also incarcerated for nonviolent crimes like drug possession, forgery and auto theft.
The new rules also say judges have to consider a defendant’s ability to pay, a point Mueller said is being ignored.
Jackson County Presiding Judge David Byrn declined an interview about how the rule is being applied, citing his schedule.
In other counties too, a comparison of jail numbers from May 30, a month before the rule began, to December show little change.
On Dec. 12, the number of inmates in Platte County had increased. The same was true in Lawrence and Stone counties. In Barry County, there was one less person.
“This is proof that the new rules have had very little effect,” said Mueller, the public defender who collected the data in May. “Which shows, in my view, that these judges are not following the law on pre-trial release here in Missouri.”
J.R. Hobbs is a Kansas City attorney who co-chairs the state’s criminal justice task force. The group made the bond recommendations to the Missouri Supreme Court one year ago.
“The goal is to afford equal protection and due process to the extent possible to all defendants, regardless of economic circumstances,” Hobbs said.
However, he cautioned that it may take time to see how the rule is being carried out and that more data needs to be collected.
Other jurisdictions around the country have gone further than Missouri and nearly eliminated the use of cash bond. Reform in states such as New Jersey and Alaska has been sweeping.
In San Francisco, the philosophy of pretrial detention has been flipped on its head, said Phil Telfeyan, executive director of Equal Justice Under Law, a nonprofit that has litigated reform in 12 states including Missouri.
San Francisco’s courts are adopting a presumption of release where the burden for keeping someone jailed is on prosecutors and the arresting police officer, instead of the defendant.
“When too many people are jailed pretrial, it undercuts that presumption of innocence,” Telfeyan said. “It takes away what most Americans feel is fundamental to our justice system.”
