QUESTION:
Will you commit during this interview to releasing people who are pretrial for nonviolent offenses without bail, should you win this race?
ETHAN KNIGHT:
No, because I’ve seen people arrested 10 times for breaking into 10 different houses, and the only reason they’re not breaking into another one is because they’re held. A blanket statement that people wouldn’t be held I don’t think is responsible or intellectually honest on my part.
I am committed to advocating for the end of cash bail. I don’t think people should be held because they can’t pay. I think the judge should decide if somebody should be held or not. We do that in other systems. Federal and other local jurisdictions have moved away from cash bail. So I think that really needs to be a touchstone so that it’s not about money; it’s about whether or not somebody needs to be in the community.
MIKE SCHMIDT:
I think there are some legal hurdles to having a wholesale commitment that I might not be able to commit to, but to the general thrust of your question, yes.
The only reason that people should be held pretrial is either if they are a danger to the community or if they never show up to court. For nonviolent offenses, there is probably not evidence of danger to the community. Starting off with release for people who are arrested and accused of nonviolent crimes, and then if, after several times they keep missing court, then it might come to a point where it becomes necessary to hold them. At this point, the only mechanism for doing that is cash bail. But, I am for the wholesale elimination of that and, working through the Legislature, how we could fix that through the law so that we wouldn’t have to make it a monetary thing. But, straight out of the gate, if you’re arrested for a crime that’s nonviolent — with the caveat that there are some laws in place that would limit my discretion to do that — yes.