Larry Krasner.

In a move to make good on a high-profile campaign promise, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner on Wednesday announced his office will no longer recommend cash bail for most nonviolent offenses.

Krasner said at a press conference that Philadelphia prosecutors will not seek cash bail for 25 criminal charges including criminal mischief, prostitution, resisting arrest, retail theft, trespass and possession of smaller amounts of controlled substances. Instead of seeking cash bail, Krasner said his office will seek to have the defendants either released on recognizance, or released with special conditions.

Krasner made bail reform one of the keystone issues of his campaign, saying it has led to poorer defendants languishing in prison for long periods of time on low-level crimes before their cases can go to trial. The charges generally result in bail ranging up to $10,000.

Speaking Wednesday, Krasner said about 1,300 people in the city's prison system are in jail because they can't afford to pay bail. No longer seeking bail for low-level offenses, he said, should bring fairness to the city's criminal justice system, and could reduce Philadelphia's prison population by around 250 people.

“These are offenses for which people need to be held accountable, but that does not mean they need to sit in jail until the situation is worked out,” Krasner said. “In cases involving gun violence, sex assault … they will be considered as they always have been, on an individual basis and with a careful eye.”

Although the office's default position will be not to seek cash bail, Krasner said the policy does not foreclose on asking for cash bail for any charge if the circumstances call for it. Specifically, the office will consider requesting bail when the circumstances involve evidence of fentanyl, if the defendant has received two or more bench warrants in the past five years, or if the defendant has open possession with intent to delivery, or violent felony cases pending.

“There could be people with low-level offenses, but there's a damn good reason not to have bail,” he said.

The policy change builds off work that city officials have done through a $3.5 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation aimed bail reform. Those efforts, according to Krasner, have already reduced the city's prison population from about 8,000 to 6,400. With each prisoner costing about $63,000 annually, Krasner said taking hundreds more out of the city's prison system would result in significant savings for the city.

Krasner was joined during the announcement by Councilwomen Maria Quinones-Sanchez and Jannie Blackwell, Councilman Curtis Jones and the city's Chief Public Defender Keir Bradford-Grey.

Krasner said the office discussed the changes with several members of the judiciary, particularly judges involved in the pre-arraignment bail operations.

“It is our expectation that as the judges see the different recommendations from the District Attorney's Office and then they state to see a simultaneous reduction in the pretrial population … like us they will evolve, and they will evolve into this program,” Krasner said.

According to Krasner, the changes represent the “first step” in the administration's efforts to reform cash bail. However, he did not specify what the office will be doing next, saying instead the office will review what impact the latest changes will have before announcing any next steps.