Pima County Attorney’s “New” Bail Policy Isn’t New at All
SEPTEMBER 16, 2021
PIMA COUNTY, AZ — On August 24, 2021, the Pima County Attorney’s Office (PCAO) issued a press release claiming to have implemented a new “smart justice” approach to the cash bail system. However, there’s nothing new about it at all. Prior to this announcement, community members convened by Mass Liberation AZ spoke with Conover directly and demanded she implement her signed campaign promise to end cash bail on “Day 1”; and that she do so no later than August 19, 2021. Her answer to the community: a press release, passing off the status quo, as if it’s new.
These are the so-called “new” philosophies PCAO claims to have adopted:
(1) If the arrestee poses an ongoing threat of harm to the community, they should be held.
(2) If the arrestee does not pose an ongoing threat of harm to the community, our prosecutors will recommend release from custody and articulate the conditions of release that will assist the person in returning for their next Court date.
What Conover fails to mention is that these “philosophies” are not policies, and they’re not new at all. In other words, a PCAO prosecutor is always supposed to advocate for release in cases where there is no threat of ongoing harm. Furthermore, in cases where PCAO would argue for bail, there are no accompanying written policies defining what a “threat of harm” actually is. This leaves sole discretion in the hands of line prosecutors, which has always been the case.
The truth is in the numbers. At the beginning of her term in January of 2021, there were approximately 1,516 people held in the Pima County jail on a single day. In July of 2021, six months into her term, there were 1,678 people held in the jail. For someone who campaigned on “ending cash bail”, it makes little sense that these numbers are rising.
Conover is speaking out of both sides of her mouth. Until the community demanded Conover meet her Day 1 campaign promise, Conover had been misleading the community to believe that PCAO is “trapped” into enforcing cash bail by legislation. In reality, PCAO is not bound by any Arizona law to argue for cash bail. In Conover’s own words, “cash bail has proven to be antiquated and nonsensical”, “outdated and unjust.” Yet, PCAO consistently recommends high bail amounts with full awareness that judges are inclined to take recommendations made by prosecutors. The truth is, she is clinging to any and every excuse to continue the harmful practice of cash bail because she has no idea how to get her staff to follow her leadership.
All in all, Conover’s “new” bail policy leaves us with more questions than answers. It does not identify a process to reduce or eliminate bail for those currently being held in pretrial detention; it does not identify a method for application, accountability or transparency; and—perhaps most alarmingly—Conover attempted to pass all of this off as if it were her own idea, when in fact, she only released this statement to circumvent accountability to her campaign promises, despite her rebranding of PCAO as “The People’s Office.”
The community is demanding answers: PCAO wants us to believe this philosophy is new. If this is true, then what was PCAO doing before? We demand that Conover and her administration follow through with the promises she made during her campaign. Conover has the power to direct prosecutors to stop recommending bail and finally reject an illogical system that distinguishes safety from danger solely based on a person’s ability to pay.
Finally, Conover must explicitly acknowledge the work being done by directly impacted people on this issue and that ending cash bail is a mandate from the community that elected her. We demand that instead of legitimizing the bail system, Conover spend her time in office reinvesting the county’s resources into community-based solutions that treat every person accused of a crime with dignity and address the root causes of harm in our communities. Putting people in cages is never the answer to social problems.