Official Arguments (click ▸ to expand)
California Proposition 25, Replace Cash Bail with Risk Assessments Referendum (2020) - Ballotpedia
SECTION 1. It is the intent of the Legislature by enacting this measure to permit preventive detention of pretrial defendants only in a manner that is consistent with the United States Constitution, as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court, and only to the extent permitted by the California Constitution as interpreted by the California courts of review.
ballotpedia.org
✅ San Francisco Chronicle
"This is a significant improvement from the current system where money decides who stays in jail and who gets released before trial. As of June 30, of the 61,000 people in California’s county jails, only 17,000 were actually sentenced to confinement, according to the Board of State and Community Corrections. The injustice and racial disparities of the status quo are not hypothetical. Vote yes on Prop. 25."
✅ The San Diego Union-Tribune
"Besides some sheriffs and police chiefs, the loudest opposition to the measure comes from the state’s multibillion-dollar bail bond industry, which faces extinction. But it is hard to have much sympathy for an industry that is such a key part of California’s destructive and inequitable criminal-justice system. Bottom line is that it’s fairer to determine a person’s release on their level of risk than the level of their bank account. Vote yes on Proposition 25."
🚫 American Civil Liberties Union SoCal
"Vote to reject pretrial discrimination and make sure we end cash bail the right way.
Prop 25 gets rid of money bail across the state — but it does this by using a discriminatory risk assessment system in its place. These risk assessment tools are not scientific and objective; instead, they are racially and socioeconomically biased. Prop 25 also expands funding to law enforcement agencies and increases the power of judges to incarcerate people without a conviction. Vote NO on Prop 25 to prevent the use of racist algorithms that do not improve pretrial justice."
✅ Los Angeles Times
"They are correct that the ballot measure is imperfect, but there must remain adequate safeguards for public safety. Besides, SB 10 and other laws adopted in its wake include processes for monitoring compliance, correcting problems and working out the kinks in the interests of justice. The mandate to analyze pretrial detention data will provide a long-overdue examination of California court operations and disparities among counties. Proposition 25 is an important step toward better justice."
✅ The Mercury News
"California has known for years that its cash-bail system discriminates against the poor and people of color while transferring hundreds of millions of dollars from low-income communities to the lucrative bail-bond industry. The wealthy can afford to post bail while awaiting trial, but poor people must languish in jail or turn to bond companies that charge about 10% of the bail amount to free them. Little wonder that a 2017 report ordered by state Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye found that cash bail 'exacerbates socioeconomic disparities and racial bias.' Voters have the opportunity this November to right that wrong by voting yes on Proposition 25."
✅ Orange County Register
"The problem with the current system is that people who are innocent can suffer life-destroying consequences if they are arrested and eligible for bail, but lack the financial resources to pay thousands of dollars for a bail bond. While locked up for months before a trial, people can lose their jobs, fall behind on payments for housing and plunge into an even deeper financial hole. Those who are able to borrow money for a bail bond can suffer ongoing harm from the added debt burden. Poverty is not a crime, but for people who are arrested and can’t afford bail, it is punished as if it were."
🚫 The Desert Sun
"We believe Californians deserve a system that corrects inequities in how criminal justice is administered — especially when it comes to those only accused, but not convicted. The new system must be better than what it replaces, however. The Legislature’s SB 10 creation that would be affirmed under Proposition 25 is not that system.
Californians should revoke this potentially harmful misstep at reform by voting “no” on Proposition 25."
✅ California Democratic Party
"Replaces discriminatory and unjust money bail with a fairer system based on public safety – not ability to pay."
End Money Bail California
Innocence should be determined by a system of equal justice under the law - but that's not how the money bail system works. Under the current system, people arrested for minor, non-violent offenses who can't afford to buy a bail bond must wait - sometimes weeks or months - for their court date, separated from their friends and family by the bars of a jail cell.
yesoncaprop25.com
🚫 Republican Party
"No on Prop 25 – Makes 'Zero Bail' Permanent
Prop 25 eliminates Californians’ constitutional right to choose bail or pretrial release programs when accused of a crime, forcing them to rely on government-managed computer algorithms to decide who gets released."