LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles County will officially move to a zero-bail system on Oct. 1, ending the years-long standard of setting cash bail amounts for defendants commensurate with the severity of the crime they are accused of committing—a process critics say favors the rich while doing little to protect public safety.
But the zero-bail system has come under fire from hard-line law-and-order backers who contend it removes accountability from the justice system by allowing the vast majority of arrestees to be quickly released from custody rather than kept in jail as they await charges and trial, unless they are accused of the most serious of crimes.
