S.F. public defender challenges bail cases

The San Francisco Public Defender’s office said Wednesday that for the past two weeks it has been filing legal challenges in every criminal case its been involved in whenever bail has been set.

Public Defender Jeff Adachi said his office has filed 282 challenges on behalf of clients since Oct. 10 — 14 times the number of challenges that would typically be filed over that time period. His disclosure comes as the state’s cash-bail system has come under increasing criticism as unfair to those who can’t afford to post bail while awaiting a court appearance.

California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye called for a sweeping overhaul of the bail system on Tuesday.

Each time Adachi’s office files a challenge, it triggers a hearing in which a judge must weigh a defendant’s financial circumstances and alternatives to incarceration when deciding on bail. Typically, judges rely on a “bail schedule,” which assigns specific dollar amounts to specific alleged crimes, to help inform their decisions.

On Tuesday, a comprehensive judicial report recommended that the state abolish the cash-bail system. The report recommended a system focused on more rigorous assessments of whether a person poses a risk of harming others or missing their court date, in addition to expanding pretrial services meant to keep low-level offenders out of jail.

“By blindly relying on the bail schedule without considering each individual’s ability to pay or alternatives to incarceration, judges are violating the rights of thousands of San Franciscans,” Adachi said in a statement. “By filing challenges on behalf of each client behind bars, we intend to abolish San Francisco’s bail assembly line that wreaks havoc on families while ignoring constitutional rights.”