Originally proposed in 2016, California's Senate Bill 10 received widespread support. However, since its introduction the bill has been revised in ways that have changed initial proponents into avid opponents. SB 10 was intended to eliminate cash bail from the criminal justice system for all intents and purposes. Cash bail is a major problem in our legal system in that it traps those without the finances in jail, requiring them to post bail before the case has even been charged in court. The original version of SB 10 failed to pass last year. The revised version (which has two weeks to pass through the Legislature) still removes cash bail but its alternative, individual risk assessments and preventative detention are a highly criticized solution. At the moment, California has no criteria with which to assess an individual's risk, leaving it to the Judge to decide. This makes these decisions susceptible to discriminatory influences. The revised bill also allows prosecutors to file for preventative detention. Preventative detention will usually result in the pretrial detention of the accused, regardless of any mitigating factors supporting release without the need to post any cash bail prior to trial. Pretrial detention will also exponentially increase the number of those in jail, which is why many are calling SB 10, a policy of mass incarceration.
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