KUOW72%
Public defenders ask WA Supreme Court to put new limits on cash bail 33%
By Amy Radil0%
5/15/2026, 1:00:26 PM
Topics: Law And Courts
BS Summary: This article contains 14 faulty reasoning types, including Availability Heuristic, Self-Serving Bias, and Negativity Bias, with Framing Effect as the most egregious example at 11.5% saturation with 130 hits. Analysis detected 570 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,134 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 41.2% and a BS Rank of 33% (11,380 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 67.70% of the article peer group.
Dozens of states have sought to move away from cash bail in recent years, to reduce the burdens on poor defendants.
Now public defenders are seeking to implement similar policy changes in Washington, through a proposal to the Washington Supreme Court.
Their request has ignited a debate about the potential impacts of these changes, and whether the court or the Legislature is the best venue to consider them.
Katie Hurley, special counsel for criminal practice and policy with King County’s Department of Public Defense, said her colleagues see people burdened by unaffordable bail that can mean longer jail stays for people who haven’t been convicted of a crime.
“The pretrial incarceration system becomes a system of punishment,” Hurley said.
“And that is not what the system is intended to be.
The system is designed to ensure peoples’ release and make sure they can come back to court.”
Hurley developed a proposal that asks the Washington Supreme Court to restrict the use of bail in three ways:
Judges would enable more people to pay 10% of their bail straight to the court, where it’s refundable, instead of to bail bond agents, who keep that 10% fee.
Public defenders want to exempt more people from bail entirely, by requiring bail only if the judge determines that someone intends to flee from prosecution, a higher standard than the risk of failing to appear.
Bail would be capped at $200 for misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors (excluding domestic violence and DUI offenses) so people can pay 10% of that amount (or $20) to the court to get out of jail.
Courtney Wimer, a bail bond agent in Tacoma and president of the Washington State Bail Agents’ Association, said she doesn’t think people will show up to court if they have just $20 on the line.
She said when she pays someone’s bail, she and the defendant’s family all work together to get the person to court.
“You can go and steal up to $750 and have it be a gross misdemeanor, I don’t think they’re going to care about [losing] $20,” Wimer said.
“But if you have your mom or grandma going, ‘You better get your butt to court,’ they’re going to care about that.”
On weekday afternoons Wimer often crosses the street from her business, All City Bail Bonds, to Pierce County Superior Court to watch the felony arraignments and glean important details about defendants.
One man has ties in Oregon, another has worked on a fishing boat in Alaska — these could be risk factors that mean they are likely to leave the state, Wimer said.
She said judges’ bail decisions are often at odds with the defendant’s risk score based on their previous record.
Wimer sees little rhyme or reason to some of the determinations.
On this day a judge releases a man charged with burglary despite 40 prior arrests and multiple failures to comply with conditions from the Department of Corrections.
The same judge imposes bail on a woman with no previous record who has a job and a fixed address.
Washington state’s constitution ensures that most people are released on bail while awaiting trial.
Wimer said authorities have clear reasons to keep some suspects in custody.
“It’s because that person either has a lengthy criminal history, a lengthy history of not appearing, or it’s a dangerous crime," she said.
"That’s why they’re in jail, it’s not because they’re poor.”
Wimer opposes the proposed bail changes, which would largely sideline her business.
She thinks reducing the use of cash bail means fewer people will show up to their court dates.
That’s a concern for the King County Prosecutor’s Office as well, said Patrick Hinds, the office's chief deputy of economic crimes and wage theft.
“If a defendant in fact fails to appear, particularly repeatedly fails to appear,” Hinds said, “that can entirely disrupt any ability to bring that defendant’s case to a resolution.”
Tiffany Attrill, co-founder of the Victim Justice Coalition, said the proposal should be debated by lawmakers, not the state Supreme Court.
“Nowhere in these proposed changes is there any comment on crime victims or the impact that this would have on them.
And we feel that this type of sweeping changes need to be put forth before the Legislature,” Attrill said.
Other states have implemented bail reform through legislation.
But Washington Supreme Court Justice Sal Mungia, who chairs the five-member rules committee, said he thinks these changes are within the court’s purview.
“There is a separation of powers here,” he said.
“Bail is part of the judicial process, which in my view that is the province of the state Supreme Court.”
Mungia said he received and read hundreds of comments from the public about the proposed changes.
Most comments opposed the rule changes on public safety grounds.
But Mungia said people who pose a danger to society shouldn’t be eligible for bail anyway.
“If you’re going to intimidate someone, try to intimidate a witness, tamper with evidence, violate a protective order — you’re put in a different category already,” he said.
Mungia said this bail change is meant for people who don’t pose those concerns.
Both sides in the debate offer studies to support their conclusions.
A 2024 study of dozens of cities by the Brennan Center found no statistically significant relationship between bail reform and crime rates.
A study of Yolo County, California, cited by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, said recipients of zero bail reoffended at higher rates than arrestees who posted bail.
David Garavito, assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Law, described Washington state’s proposal as more incremental than other states that eliminated cash bail entirely.
He noted that some states like New York also backpedaled when controversy erupted.
“New York — it was less about efficacy, more about multiple different sides that were a backlash to jumping too far, too quickly," Garavito said.
Bail bond agent Courtney Wimer said there are lots of practical things the courts could already do to help people in jail — like letting arrestees retrieve phone numbers for their family members off their cellphones, so they can get released more quickly.
Different jurisdictions could also communicate better when someone misses a hearing because they’re in custody elsewhere, she said.
Meanwhile public defender Katie Hurley said she’d like to see the courts do more to support defendants who miss court dates for logistical reasons, because they are homeless or lack transportation.
The Washington Supreme Court’s rules committee could send the proposed rules to the full court for a vote in the coming months.
They could vote to approve or reject the proposed rules, send the issue to a work group, or hold a public hearing.
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