California Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

There are kangaroo courts….and then there are donkey jails. While kangaroo courts don’t actually have kangaroos sitting in court, donkey jails do indeed have donkeys cooling their hoofs in jail, at least in one town in India. In the Northern Indian town of Orai, eight donkeys found a tasty meal that just happened to be expensive saplings outside of the local jail complex. When the donkeys were caught red-hoofed chowing down on the pricey plants, the local police constable took it into his own hands. The furry criminals were arrested and herded off to jail. Hard to believe, but apparently this is true; even the New York Times reported the story. And there is some “cute animal” video footage of the arrest; it’s a nice break from cat videos.

The donkeys’ owner was in a frantic search for his animals. When he found out they were in the big house, he begged the police to set them free. But apparently the poor owner could not afford the bail. So, he sought justice through his local politician. Reportedly the bail was paid by the politician and the donkeys were released. The donkeys spent a total of four days in jail, there is no report as to whether they complained about the jailhouse food.

Now lest you think this Indian town is just a bit foolish, the jail superintendent explained that there is not really a donkey jail in Orai and donkeys can’t really be arrested. The donkeys were taken into “custody” to teach their owner a lesson. The owner had been warned repeatedly about his animals roaming in the town but had done nothing about it. Still, you have to admit, this story makes great copy and is good for a chuckle.

A little over 20 years ago, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 was passed by an act of Congress. The act was precipitated in part by the increased attention to violent crime including street gang violence and mass shootings. The bill was introduced by the federal government as part of the “get tough on crime” climate of that era. It was sweeping legislation that continues to be in force today. Among the many legislative staffers who worked on the bill was GOP staffer Kevin Ring. Twenty years later, Mr. Ring was convicted by the federal government on fraud and conspiracy charges in connection with an illegal lobbying scheme. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison and served his time in a minimum-security prison until his release in 2015.

Now the former lobbyist, lawyer, and legislative aide who fought for and believed in tougher criminal laws has had a change of heart. Looking back, Mr. Ring says that too many bills are written by 20-year-olds with no experience but a lot of opinions. That’s a frightening statement but it is true. The “Hill” is staffed by mostly young people, Mr. Ring himself was in his mid-20’s when he helped push through the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Now with more experience and some prison time under his belt, he along with two other former GOP operatives who ended up in federal prison are working on prison reform. They have some strong allies in Mark Zuckerberg and the Koch brothers, who are helping to fund their initiatives.

Mr. Ring is president of FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums), which advocates for humane and individualized sentencing. The focus of FAMM is the mandatory minimum sentencing, which allows little to no discretion in sentencing offenders for certain crimes. More than one-fifth of federal offenders sentenced last year were sentenced under a mandatory minimum sentence. Mr. Ring believes that mandatory minimums are not only inherently unfair but inflate the sentences across all offenses, even those not subject to mandatory minimum guidelines.

When a person is arrested in California for a felony, and some misdemeanors, he or she will be detained—most often at the county jail—until an arraignment before a judge. At the arraignment, the judge will set bail, or in some cases release the defendant on their own recognizance. Depending on the seriousness of the crime, the bail amount can run into the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, sometimes even millions, of dollars. If the defendant has the resources to pay the bail, which will usually be 10% of the bail amount paid to a bail bondsman. Current law mandates the bail system and its due for reform.

Consider that the way it is set up now: those who have limited resources often find themselves unable to post bail. Even though they are still innocent of the crime for which they are charged, they will remain incarcerated because they don’t have the funds to pay a bail bondsman. It is not as uncommon as you might think to see a person’s freedom taken away for months, even years, only to be acquitted of the crime for which they were accused. On the other hand, a person with enough resources who is charged with a crime, even one that is very serious (even a person charged with murder may be entitled to bail), will be able to secure his or her release from jail. This is an inherently unfair system.

In 2016, the Chief Justice of California established a Pretrial Detention Reform Workgroup to analyze pretrial detention in California and recommend policy reform. The panel, which consisted of Superior Court Judges from a variety of California counties just published its findings and recommendations. They came up with ten recommendations for pretrial reform: