California has been one of a handful of states that are letting prisoners out early, and not taking new offenders in at all, as part of their efforts to control the coronavirus from spreading inside the prison populations.
That has consequences, of course, and we’re starting to see those consequences in action.
As an example, 24-year-old Jose Enrique Esquivel faces 14 felony counts of auto theft in just the last 3 months.
Each time that we was arrested over the last few months, he’s been immediately released because of the zero bail policy.
There are two things to take away from this: A) He’s a terrible thief, and B) He’s using the new policy to his advantage by not giving a f*ck.
“The suspect is also accused of exploiting the modification to the Los Angeles County Bail Schedule during his crime spree, while the County endured the statewide COVID-19 emergency where most crimes were designated to have zero bail.”
Ya think?
Esquivel was eventually held on bail after the policy expired and now sits in jail on $550,000 bail. If he’s convicted, he faces up to 17 years in prison.
While no violence came out of Esquivel’s free run to do as he pleased, I’m certain that we’ll be hearing about other stories where things were much more serious.
Esquivel has pleaded not guilty on all charges.
