Editorial: California blew it on bail reform. Now Illinois is showing it works
California lawmakers passed a bill eliminating money bail in 2018, but voters overturned the important reform in tumultuous 2020 after a fear-stoking referendum campaign led by the bail bond industry. The state is now slowly picking its way through more modest improvements set in motion by court policies and lawsuits, leaving us with a piecemeal system that is too slowly and inconsistently rolling back the role of wealth and poverty in determining who gets out of jail before trial.
That left leadership to other
