The legislative track: SB 10 and Prop 25
SB 10, signed in 2018, would have eliminated money bail statewide and replaced it with pretrial risk assessment. A referendum petition suspended it, and in November 2020 California voters rejected Proposition 25, which meant SB 10 never took effect. Money bail remained the law.
The judicial track: In re Humphrey
In March 2021 the California Supreme Court decided In re Humphrey, holding that a court may not set bail in an amount the defendant cannot afford without first considering ability to pay and less restrictive alternatives, and that pretrial detention requires clear and convincing evidence that no lesser condition will protect public or victim safety. That decision, not the ballot, is what reshaped bail hearings across the state.
The county track: pre-arraignment release in LA
Following litigation over LA County's use of the bail schedule for people awaiting arraignment, the Los Angeles Superior Court adopted pre-arraignment release protocols that took effect on October 1, 2023. Under those protocols many people arrested for lower-level offenses are cited, booked and released, or brought before a magistrate rather than held on a schedule amount. Serious and violent felonies remain on the schedule.
Where a bail agent fits now
For low-level cases, less often than a decade ago. For felonies, holds, and cases where the court sets an amount after a Humphrey analysis, exactly as before. We think the honest framing is that bail reform narrowed the field rather than closing it — and we would rather say that than pretend the last five years did not happen.