San Francisco’s top prosecutor says a new California Supreme Court bail ruling will free the career criminals her office spent years locking up.
The state’s high court ruled unanimously April 30 that judges must set bail at amounts defendants can actually afford and may only deny bail outright for violent or sexual offenses, CalMatters reported. Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero wrote the 7-0 opinion in a case born from a homeless man’s arrest for buying a $7 cheeseburger with a found credit card.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told the New York Post (NYP) the ruling will undermine her office’s grip on chronic offenders. “Not only is this a devastating ruling for the DA’s office, but a devastating ruling for our state and for San Francisco,” Jenkins said. (RELATED: California’s Soft-On-Crime Dream: Close Prison, Parole Serial Pedophile)
Within days, defense lawyers cited the new precedent to seek the release of more than 90 inmates jailed on drug dealing, theft and other counts, the NYP reported. One woman who allegedly went on a 2023 spree that included a hammer attack and a robbery with scissors walked free wearing an electronic monitor.
San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins warns ‘devastating’ California court will unleash crime wave https://t.co/BUMkmWrg7m pic.twitter.com/Tm0ugmcrRo
— New York Post (@nypost) May 17, 2026
Jenkins pointed to repeat thieves her office had finally jailed. Aziza Graves took more than $60,000 in goods from a single Target across 120 visits, while Tyrese Boswell allegedly hit one Walgreens 27 times in under six months, the NYP reported. A drug bust this week netted 338.5 grams of narcotics and 62 arrests, 52 of them with outstanding warrants.
Burglaries fell 26%, robberies 23% and vehicle theft 44% in San Francisco between 2024 and 2025, according to police data the NYP cited. Jenkins credited swift pretrial detention, not just cameras and drones, for the drop.
California is breaking from a national trend toward tougher detention rules, including President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting cashless bail, the Marshall Project reported. Voters in Alabama and Indiana will decide ballot measures this year to expand pretrial holding authority.
Jenkins did not spare the justices in her NYP interview. “We are going to continue to be the brunt of every joke and attack on Fox News, and rightfully so,” she said.