Since September and the implementation of cashless bail, the Wayne County Jail has been hovering around 10-12 people on average. That figure has been steady according to jail officials for the past month. Some of those arrested in the area have been arrested multiple times for multiple crimes.
According to officials at the jail, the reason they are releasing offenders is because they are granted pretrial release without cash bail as part of the pretrial release provisions of the Safe-T act. Judges have the authority on the seriousness of the crime to hold offenders until trial if they violate the terms of their pretrial release, but in Wayne County, that has not taken place but on a few occurrences.
Between September 16th and January 16th, court records indicate that alleged offenders being arrested 3 or more times.
Randolph Reid is one example of the cycle. Since September, he has faced charges of criminal trespassing to real property. We have attempted to look more into the cases, but some items have been sealed. Others indicate Reid failed to appear in court multiple times. A status update on the cases for Reid is set for February 13th at 9:30 AM.
Another alleged multiple-time offender is Edward Riley. Since September, Riley has been arrested and charged with crimes at least 3 times. As of the release of this report, Riley is awaiting a court appearance on initial charges of Theft and criminal trespassing. In other instances, Riley has been charged with theft.
Wayne County Circuit Clerks staff told us about the training received in regards to the Landmark Safe-T Act. According to the staff, they say that they received 45 minutes of training over zoom about the pre-trial release and how that is supposed to work. Staff at the courthouse feel that more training is needed to understand how the act is supposed to work.
We have reached out to the Wayne County States Attorney’s office, but not comment has been received at this time. We will update the story once we receive comment.
Until more clarity is given on the rules, police and sheriff’s departments throughout the state will be playing the catch and release game with alleged offenders of the law on low level crimes.