No Monetary Bail For Certain Low-level Offenses

Defendant pretrial release - no monetary bond for low level offenses. Under current law, the court is required to release a person charged with a class 3 misdemeanor, petty offense, or unclassified offense on a personal recognizance bond unless certain conditions exist. The act removes petty offenses from that requirement. The act prohibits a court from imposing a monetary condition of release for a defendant charged with a traffic offense, petty offense, or comparable municipal offense, except for a traffic offense involving death or bodily injury, eluding a police officer, circumventing an interlock device, or a municipal offense with substantially similar elements to a state misdemeanor offense. The act does not prohibit a defendant's release based on a pretrial policy that includes monetary conditions if the defendant is informed that he or she would be released without monetary conditions if he or she waits for a bond hearing. The act does not prohibit issuance of a warrant with monetary conditions of bond for a defendant who fails to appear in court as required or who violates a condition of release.
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)