August 24, 2020

Contact: Jonathan Underland, 856.842.6757

ICYMI: 16 Newspapers Endorse the Yes on Prop 25 Campaign to #EndMoneyBail 

Good Afternoon:

The editorial boards of major publications throughout California are joining the call to end the state’s predatory and unfair money bail system by endorsing a YES vote on Proposition 25 this year. A “yes” vote on Prop 25 would make California’s justice system safer, more fair, and less wasteful by replacing a system that determines who stays in jail based on the money in their pocket, with a system that examines each individual’s risk to public safety instead.

The Bay Area Reporter was the first daily paper to endorse the measure, followed by the Bay Area News Group, the Southern California News Group, and the Bakersfield Californian.

Bay Area News Group

In their endorsement, the editorial board highlights the for-profit industry that is leveraging its great wealth to oppose Proposition 25. It’s an industry that uses the money bail system to rake in billions off the backs of poor Californians who end up languishing behind bars simply because they can’t afford to post bail. “The industry is powerful. And profitable. The top 10 companies cover an estimated $14 billion in bonds every year, raking in $2 billion in profits. California accounts for an estimated 25% of that business.”

The board goes on to excoriate a system that “discriminates against the poor and people of color while transferring hundreds of millions of dollars from low-income communities to the lucrative bail-bond industry…Voters have the opportunity this November to right that wrong by voting yes on Proposition 25.”

The Bay Area News Group includes the Mercury News, the East Bay Times, and the Marin Independent Journal.

Southern California News Group 

Representing eleven newspapers throughout the Southern California region, the Southern California News Group editorial board urged its readers to vote YES on Proposition 25 to abolish a system of money bail that criminalizes poverty, writing, “Poverty is not a crime, but for people who are arrested and can’t afford bail, it is punished as if it were.”

It’s a system that favors the wealthy - regardless of the risk they pose to public safety - and forces the poor to borrow money, spend weeks or months in jail, or even plead guilty to crimes they didn’t commit just to be able to walk free. “The problem with the current system is that people who are innocent can suffer life-destroying consequences if they are arrested and eligible for bail, but lack the financial resources to pay thousands of dollars for a bail bond.”

“Our criminal justice system must be fair to all. The cost of anything else is far too high,” the editorial board writes. 

The Southern California News Group publishes the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Press-Enterprise, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Whittier Daily News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, and the Redlands Daily Facts.

Read the Bay Area Reporter and the Bakersfield Californian editorials asking Californians to join them in voting YES on Proposition 25.

Learn more about Prop. 25 here: https://yesoncaprop25.com 

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