Arizona- Voters may get chance to eliminate cash bail
Voters in Arizona may get a chance this fall to weigh in on whether cash or money bail should be eliminated. If approved by the State House and Senate, HCR2022 would put the issue on the ballot this fall. It was introduced last week and appears to have bipartisan support If approved by voters, if would eliminate cash bail by a constitutional amendment. “The system is broken on both ends and so we need to fix it,” said Amelia Cramer, a former prosecutor with the Pima County Attorney’s office and now a volunteer with the NAACP. “So we need to get money out of the equation.” The NAACP says cash bail punishes the poor, fails to protect public safety and disproportionally impacts people of color. Frequently the poor languish is jail awaiting their trial date because they can’t afford to make bail even if it’s $250 or $500. Cramer tells the story of a Tucson woman who was arrested for stealing a candy bar from a convenience store. She also had a years old warrant for failure to appear. Her b...