Overview
- Defense lawyers in San Francisco, citing the April 30 ruling, have asked courts to free more than 90 people held on drug, theft and other nonviolent charges, and judges have approved some releases with electronic monitoring.
- The California Supreme Court ruled 7-0 that bail must be set at amounts defendants can pay and that only those accused of violent or sexual crimes may be jailed without bail.
- District Attorney Brooke Jenkins called the decision devastating and said it will free repeat drug dealers, auto burglars, retail thieves and some felons with guns before trial.
- Police data show burglaries fell 26%, robberies 23%, larceny 22% and vehicle theft 44% from 2024 to 2025, which Jenkins credits in part to swift pretrial detention as a deterrent.
- The case began with Gerald John Kowalczyk, a homeless man who could not pay $75,000 bail after buying a $7 cheeseburger with another person’s credit card, a fact civil rights advocates used to argue against wealth-based detention.