Can cash bail reform catch on in Miami-Dade? Some cities ‘ring the alarm’ in opposition

A bail-reform proposal that would allow certain low-level offenders in Miami-Dade to be released from jail without posting bond or seeing a judge has prompted some cities to preemptively oppose the plan.

Their criticism echoes opposition heard nationwide — much of it from politicians hoping to burnish tough-on-crime credentials. On Wednesday, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, speaking at the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ winter meeting in Washington, D.C., said it’s “time to end the no-cash-bail experiment.”

“It has driven an explosion of lawlessness,” said Suarez, the group’s president. “It shutters critical businesses.”

The Miami-Dade plan, under development by the Public Defender’s Office, the State Attorney’s Office, the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust and Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation, would use computer software that seeks to predict who may break the law in the future to help determine whether people arrested for certain low-level crimes could be released immediately, rather than being detained until they can attend a bond hearing and learn how much they’ll have to pay to be released.

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The proposal, which is expected to be adopted at some point this year, is a response to criticism that Miami-Dade’s corrections system puts too many people behind bars and unfairly burdens those with less money. But it has stirred up concern even in some of the county’s self-described progressive-leaning cities.

“Miami Beach had to ring the alarm and alert our neighboring communities about what we were hearing that’s coming down the pipeline,” said Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez, who co-sponsored a resolution in December that opposed the plan. “We need the 34 municipalities in Miami-Dade County to be united in a front to uphold the laws that we ask our law enforcement to enforce.”

Fernandez, who described his city as “the most progressive municipality in the state of Florida,” said so-called quality-of-life crimes are “the number one issue” in Miami Beach. The city has recently expanded its unique municipal prosecutor program, which has been criticized in the past for disproportionately targeting homeless people for nonviolent crimes like public drinking, public urination and trespassing.

“My big concern is that the talk out there of what is being proposed will only lubricate the revolving doors of justice,” Fernandez said. “My residents walk out of their condominiums, and they see people urinating and defecating in front of their buildings, right in front of their front doors. ... It is demoralizing to the residents and taxpayers of our community.”

Two more cities followed Miami Beach’s lead: Doral, which passed a similar resolution on Jan. 11, and South Miami, which took a more nuanced stance on Jan. 17.

South Miami Vice Mayor Lisa Bonich, who credited Miami Beach for alerting her to the issue, asked fellow city commissioners last week to join her in opposition to the proposal. One of her main concerns was that people arrested for certain types of assault could also be released without bail. (Under the proposed changes, individuals charged with battery and non-domestic assault won’t be automatically held for a hearing.)

“The city of Miami Beach essentially took the bull by the horns and said, ‘We are not OK with this,’” Bonich said at last week’s commission meeting. “If they had not done that, we would likely not be having this conversation. It would probably hit us in the face later, after it already happened, and we’d all have to deal with it.”

Bonich told the commission that she lives across the street from a Walgreens that is now “robbed on the regular,” and that she no longer feels safe shopping there.

“Letting criminals out of jail without bail is ridiculous to me,” she said. “It’s akin to normalizing bad behavior, and then being shocked when you’re personally affected by it.”

Bonich faced significant pushback from Mayor Javier Fernandez, a former Democratic state representative elected in November. Fernandez said he wasn’t convinced that Miami Beach’s resolution had been vetted properly, and that the commission shouldn’t adopt a policy without doing more research and inviting Miami-Dade Chief Judge Nushin Sayfie, who is championing the overhaul, to speak with them.

The mayor also said that, as a municipal government, the issue is “above our weight class.”

“These resolutions often make a political statement, and frankly, if I wanted to be in partisan office, I would have run for the Legislature again,” he said.

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The South Miami Commission eventually voted 5-0 to adopt a watered-down resolution, which gave a head-nod to Miami Beach. But instead of outright opposing the bail reform plan, the resolution offered support for the recommendations of law enforcement groups and the State Attorney’s Office, which expressed concern about the possibility of certain assault offenders being released without a hearing, among other aspects of the plan.

“If I could disagree with you more, we’d be on different planets,” Bonich told Fernandez. “I think we’ve cheapened it, and if that’s the only way you guys think that it’s gonna pass, then I guess 50 cents is better than $100.”

In Doral, Councilwoman Maureen Porras sponsored her city’s resolution, saying at the meeting that law enforcement’s job “would be undone” should the proposal go through.

Porras told the Herald that there has been “a small uptick in crime” in Doral.

“But we always have to be proactive,” she said.

The cities that passed resolutions did not focus on the technological aspect of the bail reform plan that has reform advocates concerned. But Commissioner Fernandez of Miami Beach was skeptical that such predictive technology could be effective.

“I elect a judge,” he said. “I don’t elect a computer.”

Miami Herald reporter Aaron Liebowitz contributed reporting.