Change in bail schedule raises eyebrows among Valley law enforcement

FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) – The latest bail schedule released by Fresno County Superior Court reduces the bail amount for certain crimes to zero dollars.

However, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office does not take all crimes with a zero bail amount.

FOX26’s Karl Cooke spoke with Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni to get his thoughts on the changes.

While he understands some crimes, he disagrees with others when it comes to putting people back on the streets.

“It’s concerning because we’re just not holding people accountable,” Zanoni said. “We don’t make people responsible for their actions and we give them carte blanche. We’re putting some of these people back on the street and that’s not good for public safety and it’s not good for our community. »

Some of Sheriff Zanoni’s biggest concerns, like getting a zero bail amount, involve harm to jail employees.

These include assaults on custody officers, battery on custody officers and gassing custody officers in prison, such as spitting on them.

“These are all criminal sections related to assault and battery against correctional or detention officers,” Zanoni said. “Now these are individuals who work inside our facility and they need to be kept safe and we took these bail amounts starting in 2023 where in fact it was a bail amount and now it’s is a $0.00 deposit.

Even though there are protections for officers on the streets, Zanoni says correctional officers should have the same protections.

“Our monitoring officers care for these people 24 hours a day, seven days a week while they are in custody,” Zanoni said. “So I think it’s even more important to have some protections for them.”

As these changes are now void, this does not provide this additional protection.

Especially since Sheriff Zanoni claims that gassings against correctional officers are quite common.

Actually…

“It’s discouraging for our staff to know there are no additional fees with the actual bail amount,” Zanoni said. “So if the individual has to find $50,000 to get out, by attacking our correctional officer, he doesn’t need to pay another dollar to escape.”

Another bail amount that caught Sheriff Zanoni’s attention was Section 245-A4, which deals with assault by means likely to cause great bodily injury.

To understand the concern of this situation, the sheriff explained a recent domestic violence incident that in previous years would amount to a $15,000 bond.

“Now at 0, it allows that individual to get out on the street much quicker and much easier, and I know we have restraining orders and protection orders in place, but we’ve seen time and time again times where these don’t always work, they’re not always effective,” Zanoni said. “Sometimes suspects and offenders come back to their victims by not setting a bail amount. , we allowed this offender to get out of prison much more easily and become a threat to other people and to the victim of domestic violence.

It’s because of things like this and the recent Prop 36 vote that passed that Sheriff Zanoni says more accountability needs to be put in place.

Or…

“We’re sort of creating a society where things are okay and anarchy is going to happen because we lack accountability and we don’t hold people accountable and we make it easy for them so they’re not arrested or imprisoned. this case, with zero or making it easier for them to get out of jail, back on the streets and creating safety concerns for residents in our community here in Fresno County,” Zanoni said. “So that’s something else, I think $0.00 bail needs to be looked at, there needs to be changes, there needs to be common ground and we need to figure out exactly what our priorities.”

We also contacted the Fresno County Superior Court for their response. We’re told no one is available to speak on the subject at this time.