Prop 25 – California Replace Cash Bail with Risk Assessments Referendum (November 2020)

Cash bail, a horrific system that keeps people in jail only because they are poor and keeps many Black and brown people locked up, needs to end. However, this initiative puts forward a solution that would replace the cash bail system with one that applies a “risk assessment,” an algorithm that attempts to forecast whether someone is likely to end up back in jail and which is likely to reinforce the racial disparities in our jails. The “risk assessment” also puts more power in judges’ hands to keep people locked up away from their families while awaiting trial.

A “yes” vote for this measure would implement legislation that shifted the bail system from one based on money to one based on a percieved “public safety risk”, a tool that would empower judges and potentially retrench the racial and economic inequities that exist in policing, prosecution and sentencing.