Scratching My Head in Confusion

This week the story broke of corruption in the California Dept. of Motor Vehicles – the DMV. Apparently some employees and former employees were accused of accepting bribes in exchange for giving driver’s licenses to “unqualified drivers.”

Many of the court records are sealed so the extent of the crimes is not known. Because of that, the possible punishment is also unknown. However, in 2019 the Sacramento Bee reported that a Sylmar woman, who was a former DMV employee, pled guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for commercial driver’s licenses. She was convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery, to commit identity fraud and to commit unauthorized access of a computer. She was to serve two-and-a-half years in a federal prison.

Compare that crime and punishment scenario with the case of a repeat offender in Glendale.

Rachel Holland is a 34-year-old woman who reportedly resides in Glendale. She was on probation (I don’t know what for but I can guess) and during a probation compliance check in April was found to have an assortment of drug paraphernalia (scale, pay and owe sheet, etc.), drugs and a loaded gun in her possession. She was arrested but released on bail.

In May another probation compliance check was performed and – surprise! – she was in possession of items similar to those found in April. Again she was arrested and again she made bail.

A week later – you guessed it – during another probation check she was found to be in possession of illegal drugs for sale. She was with another guy and they were both arrested and booked. She made bail and was released and he was released due to the County’s “zero-dollar” bail schedule.

So apparently if you’re convicted of accepting bribes in exchange for giving driver’s licenses to unqualified drivers you can get two-and-half years in a federal prison but if you’re repeatedly arrested for the same crime you aren’t even held without bail. And, if you’re lucky enough to make bail, you can go right back to committing the same crime because you’ll just make bail and be released again.

And that’s without exploring the reasoning behind the zero-dollar bail schedule.

The zero-dollar bail for misdemeanor and low-level felonies was a state policy instituted near the beginning of the pandemic with the goal of keeping down the jail population during the coronavirus pandemic. But I thought that the California Judicial Council abolished the zero-dollar bail schedule in June 2020 with the understanding that it could be reinstated should the pandemic worsen. So I’m at a loss why this is still happening.         

Am I the only one who questions the sanity of this process? I’m sure this is not the only example of disparity within the legal and justice systems but it is one that makes me scratch my head in confusion.