(NewsNation) — Rapper 50 Cent says he’s against the zero-bail policy that has been reinstated in Los Angeles County.
50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, posted on Instagram last week that “LA is finished watch how bad it gets out there. SMH (shaking my head).”
Along with the caption, he shared a news clip about the ruling from KTTV, a local Fox station.
The ruling states that people arrested for nonviolent, low-level offenses in Los Angeles County are no longer forced to post bail as a preliminary injunction.
In late May, Superior Court judge issued the injunction in a class-action lawsuit brought by those who argue the current bail system inherently favors the wealthy. Six plaintiffs claimed they suffered negative consequences because they could not afford bail. Reasons included missed work, separation from their families and lapsed medical care.
“Being jailed for even short periods of time may cause them to lose their jobs, their housing, or custody of their children,” the lawsuit stated, as reported by NewsNation Los Angeles affiliate KTLA. “They suffer all the harms of confinement in a jail cell even though a large portion of them will never be formally charged with any crime, let alone convicted.”
In the 64-page decision, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Riff explained why he sided with the plaintiffs.
“Enforcing the secured money bail schedules against poor people who are detained in jail solely for the reason of their poverty is a clear, pervasive, and serious constitutional violation,” Riff said. “Pretrial detention of presumptively innocent people based upon their poverty is neither intended nor permitted to operate as a form of punishment, but that is, plaintiffs say, what is actually happening every day.”
