Letters to the Editor: Half of L.A. County’s jail inmates haven’t been convicted. The problem is bail

To the editor: A crucial element is missing from Times reporter Keri Blakinger’s excellent piece underscoring the troubled history and growth of the Los Angeles County jail system — the role of cash bail in perpetuating this crisis.

Nearly 55% of the people in the Los Angeles County jails have not been convicted of a crime; a recent report by the Vera Institute of Justice suggests that as many as 75% of those detained are there simply because they can’t afford bail.

Cash bail creates a two-tiered system of justice — one for the rich, and another for everyone else. Under this system, people who are still legally innocent are guilty until proven wealthy.

We need to follow the lead of other states and jurisdictions that have safely minimized or eliminated cash bail to fix our jails and prevent wealth-based detention from occurring. While Los Angeles has made meaningful strides in pretrial reform — notably, before a suspect is arraigned — more needs to be done.

Jeremy Cherson, Los Angeles

The writer is director of communications for the Bail Project.

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To the editor: Your article briefly mentions the observation of a UCLA professor that “Los Angeles has a fantasy of itself being some kind of sunny utopia.”

This is the root of the problem. People come here for the weather and assume life here will be easy without winter to deal with. Hence the population growth.

Confinement is very difficult, and reentering society after a stretch “inside” is also very tough. Consequently lots of people continue that seemingly unavoidable cycle: in and out of jail.

I don’t have the answer, but it seems to me that we need to consider the rights of people who don’t commit crimes. We deserve protection from career criminals.

Larger jails? What other option do we have?

Peter Marquard, Northridge