Latino defendants in Los Angeles County are facing bail amounts that tower over those of other groups, according to a new Court Watch LA report that is already stirring up a fight with the local court system.
Volunteers with Court Watch LA say judges in downtown Los Angeles set an average bail of $157,700 for people perceived to be Latino – more than 15 times the average for white defendants and nearly three times the average for Black defendants. The figures come from 140 randomly observed felony and misdemeanor arraignments between January and November 2025. The group argues the numbers point to judges skipping key legal steps like seriously weighing ability to pay, and to a system that is drifting toward wealth-based detention.
La Defensa, the organization that runs Court Watch LA, is calling the results a warning sign that demands full, county-level data, not just volunteer snapshots.
How court watchers gathered the data
The findings are laid out in Court Watch LA’s “2025 Year in Review,” which analyzed 140 closed criminal cases observed by volunteers between January and November 2025, according to Court Watch LA. Across those cases, the group reports a median bail of $50,000. Observers say judges explicitly discussed ability to pay in only about a quarter of hearings, and that 76.9% of defendants could not afford the bail that was imposed…