Bail in the Midwest Podcasts Hosts Former Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert
Shane Rolf lives up to his reputation as one of the best podcasts hosts in Episode 54 of the Bail in the Midwest podcast.
Shane Rolf lives up to his reputation as one of the best podcasts hosts in Episode 54 of the Bail in the Midwest podcast. In this episode Mr. Rolf interviews Anne Marie Schubert, former elected District Attorney of Sacramento County, California, and President and CEO of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation. Schubert, who led the Golden State Killer prosecution, walks through how California’s criminal justice system actually works today. She takes listeners through the history of California's criminal reform policies starting with Proposition 47 (reduced penalties for many theft and drug crimes) and continued on with Proposition 57 (earlier parole eligibility), the state’s broken parole process, and ongoing efforts to eliminate or weaken financially secured bail. Schubert provides a unique prosecutor’s perspective of why repeat-offender accountability, victims’ rights, and pretrial release rules collide to create chaos around the state.
Schubert argues that several post-2014 California reforms made it harder to hold chronic offenders and that “bail reform” that removes a surety’s incentive to return defendants can shift risk onto the public. Rolf, executive vice president of the Kansas Bail Agents Association, frames the episode for a Midwest audience watching similar proposals. Together they discuss what California’s results mean for other states debating cash bail, preventive detention, and who pays when someone fails to appear.
The episode also covers forensic investigative genetic genealogy, the DNA method used to identify the Golden State Killer, and how that tool is now used on cold cases.
If you want to learn more about Ms. Schubert and her current role at the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, visit cjlf.org.
