The AP reports from San Francisco that Crystal Patterson “didn’t have the cash or assets to post $150,000 bail and get out of jail after her arrest for assault in October 2015,” so Patterson, 39, “promised to pay a bail bonds company $15,000 plus interest to put up the $150,000 bail for her, allowing to go home and care for her invalid grandmother.” The day after her release, “the district attorney decided not to pursue charges,” but Patterson “still owes the bail bonds company,” and “criminal justice reformers and lawyers at a nonprofit Washington, D.C., legal clinic say that is unconstitutionally unfair.” The attorneys “have filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of Patterson, Rianna Buffin and other jail inmates who argue that San Francisco and California’s bail system unconstitutionally treats poor and wealthy suspects differently.”
From the news release of the American Association for Justice.
