House Bill 1015 fails on the House Floor. And it should remain failed on the House floor.

Funny coincidence. House Bills 1083 and 1084, which I’ve written about at length over the last few days, had Lobbyists from the Unified Judicial System in committee testifying in favor of those bills this morning that were shot down/heavily modified.   Why is that coincidental? Because I’m hearing where they weren’t was on the House floor where opponents had the opportunity to share the problems with House Bill 1015.

And it ends up that the bill didn’t fare so well..

It failed 33-34.   But I’m told it will be up for reconsideration.  And when that happens, my thought it that it’s in a good spot where it ended up today – defeated on the House Floor. And there’s no need for a do-over.

As I noted several days ago, the White House is dead-set against cashless bail, and has issued executive orders against the practice, threatening federal funds. And that’s just the start of the problems.  In Pennington County where the project had been piloted, since it began, the jail population has expanded and as I’m told, the racial disparity it hoped to combat has increased.

That might be anecdotal, but as I spoke with one State’s Attorney today, he brought up this bill, and expressed that South Dakota’s Court Service Officers have a hefty caseload already. And a cashless bail program that places a higher workload on them is not a good thing.

It’s an experiment that was tried in one county, but doesn’t seem to have delivered as promised.. and now UJS is looking for a statewide pilot?’

But don’t listen to me. What do I know? I write about things.

Instead, reach out to the people who try to keep communities safe. I think anyone and everyone who voted in favor of this measure should reach out to their county state’s attorney and ask them what they think of the proposal of a cashless bail program, what it will do to the caseload of themselves as well as court service officers, and how it will affect the safety of their community.