Pennsylvania State Capitol. Photo credit: Zack Frank/Shutterstock.com

A state senator issued a memo declaring his intention to reintroduce legislation that would prohibit pretrial jailing for a person who doesn't pay their bail.

Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery/Delaware, said his proposed legislation would still allow judges to set monetary bail that would remain subject to forfeiture—but not pretrial detention—if the defendant didn't appear in court. Leach said his legislation would also permit judges to detain a defendant if the judge finds the defendant is a danger to themselves or their community, has a history of flight or is charged with a capital crime.

Leach wrote that his legislation would only eliminate pretrial detention for failure to make bail. Leach called the incarceration of people for not making bail “unfair, discriminatory, enormously expensive, and destructive to those individuals and their families.”

In February, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner announced his office would no longer seek cash bail for several low-level offenses in Philadelphia.

— Victoria Hudgins, of the Law Weekly •