Community Demand to Santa Clara County Judges to Bring Back Zero Dollar Bail
- SV De-Bug
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Editor's Note: The following letter was sent to Santa Clara County judges calling on the reinstatement of Zero Dollar Bail - a policy that came through a state mandate during the height of COVID to reduce jail populations. It made misdemeanors and most low level felonies into zero dollar bail so people don't have to stay in jail simply due to their inability to pay. When it was in effect, the jail population went down dramatically (and no increase of crime). The state later lifted the mandate, leaving it up to county judges to decide if they want to continue it. Without any explanation, the local judges decided to end the decarceral practice. We submitted this letter in advance of their vote regarding the annual bail schedule.
To Santa Clara County Judges,
Silicon Valley De-Bug authors the below letter (and supported by the listed community organizations) to explain our position on the necessity of Zero Dollar Bail in Santa Clara County based on our work with families, observation of arraignment court over the last 10 years, advocacy on behalf of individuals incarcerated in County jails, and our statewide efforts in conjunction with similar organizations in 12 counties in California advocating for pretrial release. For these reasons, we ask the Santa Clara County Bench to adopt the previous Zero Dollar Bail schedule. We have attached the following documents:
Exhibit 1 – Chavez v. County of Santa Clara Remedial Plan (2019)
Exhibit 2 –Plaintiffs’ (Prison Law Office) Notice of Motion and Motion for Contempt (November 17, 2025)
New and Continued Dangers in Santa Clara County Necessitate a Zero Dollar Bail Schedule
Santa Clara County Jails are historically and currently dangerous to incarcerated community members
Since 2014, Silicon Valley De-Bug has supported Prisoners United (a group comprised of those incarcerated in Santa Clara County Jails) to ameliorate deadly jail conditions, which resulted in the Chavez case and the subsequent settlement including federal oversight of the Santa Clara County Sheriff by the Prison Law Office. (Exhibit 1, Chavez v. County of Santa Clara Remedial Plan)
The recent motion by the Prison Law Office for contempt reflects that the deadly conditions in our County’s jails have not ceased even with a strict regime of federal oversight. (Exhibit 2, Plaintiffs’ (Prison Law Office) Notice of Motion and Motion for Contempt (November 17, 2025)). In setting the bail schedule, the Santa Clara County Bench should give weight to the continuity of dangerous conditions in our jail. Families and community members previously and currently incarcerated in our County jails are emphatic in their observations: “Santa Clara County jails are a death trap.”
In late April 2025, the inherent dangers of incarceration in Santa Clara County jails, especially the lapses in proper medical care which constitute the basis for PLO’s motion for contempt, hit close to home for our Silicon De-Bug family. Angelo Spencer, the cousin of De-Bug organizer Melissa Valdez, died in Main jail. Angelo Spencer was arrested in late April 2025, soon after being released from hospital. Upon his arrest, Angelo was again taken to the hospital, discharged back to custody, and passed away in the Sheriff’s custody. Custody staff in the Main Jail put Angelo in a cell alone when, instead, he should have been given proper medical treatment and sent to a hospital. Custody staff ignored necessary life saving medical care that led to Angelo’s death one day later on April 26th, 2025. Incarceration is not the answer to protect Santa Clara County’s medically vulnerable community members; release and medical care is.
Proposition 36 inevitably increases jail population and jail deaths
It is not only the opinion of advocates that the implementation of Prop 36 will cause more deaths; the Sheriff noted that due the influx of individuals who must be detained until an individualized determination of custody can be evaluated by a magistrate under Prop 36, is “concerning”. Sheriff Spokesperson Brooks Jarosz seemed to concede the point that community groups have made repeatedly. Full use of Prop 36’s revised statutes “may lead to an increase in [incarcerated individuals’] deaths.”
Unnecessary pretrial detention endangers the immigrant community
Finally, in response to the County’s existing ordinance to not turn over individuals to ICE, the current administration has empowered ICE to wait outside the jail for immigrant community members who completed their jail. The Santa Clara County Sheriff has confirmed that it has communicated with ICE to give them information regarding the release time of individuals in order to make ICE detentions as easy and efficient as possible. From June 10, 2025, to present, there have been 44 apprehensions at Elmwood Correctional Complex by federal agents. The research on pretrial incarcerations conclusively shows that early pretrial release results in fewer days served in county jail after the resolution of the case.
The previous Zero Dollar Bail schedule applies only to misdemeanors and low level felony offenses, none of which, on their own, meet the standard for detention under Article I, Section 12 of the California Constitution. Thus, the current lack of a Zero Dollar Bail schedule discriminates against our immigrant community members on the basis of income and their immigration status (since they are presumptively not detainable for low-level felonies and misdemeanors).
Zero Dollar Bail schedule cures the lack of access to Humphrey hearings
In our support of families over the last few years, we have observed that Department 23 is inundated with individuals seeking their constitutional right to liberty under Humphrey. The implementation of a Zero Dollar Bail schedule would ease the burden on Department 23 where low-level felonies and misdemeanors would be granted release in nearly every situation.
All Reports support the implementation of a Zero Dollar Bail schedule
Santa Clara County BOS’s report explained the potential liability of continuing the current bail schedule and acknowledged the “significant benefits to public safety” in Los Angeles post-Urquidi
Then Deputy County Executive Martha Wapenski issued a report to the Board of Supervisors summarizing the Memorandum Decision and Order on Motion for Preliminary Injunction in Urquidi, et al. v. City of Los Angeles, et al. (Super. Ct. L.A. County, 2023, No. 22-STCP-04044). (Exhibit 3, Implementation of a Zero Dollar Bail Policy by Other Jurisdictions by Martha Wapenski.)
The case speaks for itself, but the summary indicates that the Board of Supervisors are on notice that cash bail is not an effective mechanism for ensuring public safety, while violating the right to liberty under the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses in the federal and California Constitutions. (Id. at 4). Additionally, the Board of Supervisors are on notice that the continuance of cash bail policies set by the Santa Clara County Superior Court open the Board up to liability. (Id. at 3).
Then Deputy County Executive Martha Wapenski explained the following:
“The Court further found that the defendants offered no evidence demonstrating that their enforcement of the money bail policies furthered the compelling governmental interests in reducing or eliminating new criminal activity and in ensuring arrested individuals appear at future court proceedings.” (Id.)
“Even though money bail schedules are set by Superior Courts and not by counties, Urquidi demonstrates that county actors who enforce those judicially determined money bail schedules are not immune from suit.” (Id.)
That “money bail schedules do not further or support the important public safety goals of preventing flight and the commission of new offenses.” (Id.)
A report released on October 30, 2023 by the Los Angeles County Superior Court summarizing the first 3 weeks of the new policy showed “significant benefits to public safety.” (Id. at 4).
Santa Clara County Counsel’s hired expert recommended Zero Dollar Bail policy as the main strategy to reduce the jail population
In December 2022, Dr. James Austin of the JFA Institute was requested by the Santa Clara County Counsel to conduct a study on the jail population to offer recommendations that would safely lower the number of people detained (Exhibit 6, Recommendations for Safely Reducing the Santa Clara County Jail Population by Dr. James Austin of JFA Institute (December 2022)). The primary recommendation by the JFA was to reimplement the Zero Dollar Bail policy. They concluded that based on the data at that time, bringing back zero dollar bail alone, meaning without any other decarceral measures, would result in a population reduction pool of 350 people. The analysis did not anticipate the increase of the jail population due to Proposition 36, so projections of both the need for Zero Dollar bail, as well as the number of people who would not be detained as a result, would naturally be a larger number.
Los Angeles Superior Court’s adoption of a Zero Dollar Bail schedule has both protected liberty rights and protected community safety
According to a report authored by the Los Angeles County Superior Court in October, the early months of the implementation of the post-Urquidi Zero Dollar Bail schedule, “less than 3% of individuals booked since the PARP implementation were rebooked.” (Exhibit 4, Early Data Reveals Significant Public Safety Benefits of New Los Angeles County Pre-Arraignment Release Protocols (October 30, 2023) by Los Angeles County Superior Court)
A California Policy Lab report (Exhibit 5, The Short-Term Impacts of Bail Policy on Crime in Los Angeles by California Policy Lab) which evaluated the genesis of the Los Angeles County bail schedule from 2020 through 2024, indicated that PARPS “decreased daily overall and pretrial county jail populations in the two months after implementation, with no effect on citywide crime. (Exhibit 4, at p. 4)
Conclusion
Both the overwhelming voice of impacted community members and the statistical evidence illustrate that the adoption of the Zero Dollar Bail Schedule previously used by the County from 2020-2022 is not only an obvious policy choice to reduce community harm but also a moral imperative. The previous Zero Dollar Bail schedule balances the liberty interests of impacted, prevents economic and immigrant-based discrimination against impacted populations, and protects the community’s safety at-large.
This position as articulated in the letter above is supported by:
Afro UPRIS
Asian Law Alliance
Coalition for Justice and Accountability
Collins Foundation / San Jose Peace & Justice Center
La Raza Roundtable
MAiZ San Jose
NAACP of Silicon Valley
National Compadres Network
Sacred Heart Community Services
San Jose Nikkei Resisters
Santa Clara County Chapter of the ACLU of Northern California
Santa Clara County Wage Theft Coalition
SURJ Santa Clara County
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