On Jan. 28, an Orange County Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction that has stopped the Riverside County Superior Court and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department from jailing individuals who have been arrested for low-level crimes, and have not yet appeared in front of a judge.
Previously, some arrestees for low-level offenses who were unable to make bail—with amounts as high as $20,000—had to remain in jail, for two to five days or even longer, until their arraignment. The arrestees were detained not because they were determined to be a danger to the public, but simply because they did not have the money to pay for their freedom. For now, incarceration of anyone accused of an offense that was on Riverside County’s “bail schedule” (which pre-determined bail amounts for a collection of roughly 60 low-level offenses) is prohibited.
The Superior Court took this action even though Sheriff Chad Bianco has been claiming that the lawsuit was frivolous and groundless. On May 30, 2025, shortly after the suit was filed, Bianco said on the John McGinness Show podcast: “The general public doesn’t know that bail is adjusted all the time. The initial bail just comes from a schedule, and you get held until you see the judge, and then the judge makes decisions of whether to increase the bail, or even lower the bail, or just let you out on your own recognizance. So, the idea that some innocent person is sitting in jail because they can’t pay to bail out is an absolute lie.”…