Activists Sue Utah after Legislature Repeals Bad Bail Reforms

 



State legislators passed a bail reform bill in 2020, which replaced the normal cash bail-centric model with one that relies on risk factors when deciding whether to detain or release a person.

But lawmakers undid much of that work a year later, after sheriffs and other law enforcement officials argued the move failed victims and let dangerous people go free.

A 2021 bill largely brought Utah back to a cash-bail system, removing the part of the law that introduced risk assessment but advising judges to impose the least restrictive conditions of release available.

On Monday, an attorney filed a potential class-action lawsuit on behalf of three plaintiffs alleging that they could pay the bail set by two judges who set their bail. It asks a federal judge to declare the current bail process unconstitutional.

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