The Glendora police arrested and released this week, a man identified as Dijon Landrum from Monterey Park, for reportedly stealing cars, as well as other property thrice in the same day, and blamed the new zero-bail policy of California for their failure to keep the culprit behind bars.

Early last month, the California Judicial Council developed a new policy setting bail at zero for the majority of the misdemeanor, not to mention the low-level offenses, to retain the population in jail, lower during the COVID-19 crisis.

Consequently, the Glendora authorities say, they failed to keep a suspect for car theft under custody, and ended up "arresting him thrice in a 12-hour span for separate thefts." The final one, they said, resulted in car hunting. 

 

Arrested Three Times

The first time the man got arrested was Wednesday morning, after the officers responded to a report of a man attempting to break into vehicles on South Grand Avenue, reportedly at around 8:28 am. 

By the time the police got there, allegedly, the man, 24 years old, was driving off using a stolen automobile. Relatively, the officers said they were able to arrest the suspect arrested the suspect, adding, the man had stolen property as well, and drugs with him.

In addition, the Glendora police apprehended Landrum but said they failed to keep him behind bars due to the zero-bail policy of CA. Consequently, the said suspect was issued a citation and eventually got released.

Just an hour after Landrum's release, the authorities received a call about a man who was walking around a neighborhood near Pennsylvania and Bennett, carrying a box while he walked through front yards. 

When the police showed up, they discovered Landrum in the said neighborhood with the stolen items with him. For the second time, a citation was issued to him and he eventually got released.

Later in the evening, at exactly 8:49 p.m., the police were again called, this time, about a vehicle that had reportedly been stolen from a parking lot located in the "1300 block of South Grand Avenue." 

Through the CHP and the Sheriff's Department's help, the authorities were able to track down the vehicle headed for westbound, exactly on the 10 Freeway in La Puente. 

The police hunted the driver and eventually, they caught him in Pasadena. For the third time, Landrum got arrested for possession of a theft automobile, and escaping officers. And once again, he got released after he was issued a citation.

Zero-Bail Policy

The zero-bail policy established as the prisons and jails in California cope with the COVID-19 outbreaks among the population of the inmates. Specifically, in places such as the Terminal Island federal facility located in San Pedro, five inmate fatalities, and hundreds of cases among the staff and prisoners have been recorded and reported.

Meanwhile, George Gascon, the former San Francisco District Attorney said, COVID-19 has forced the justice system to confront a "not-so-novel question," one that greatly defined the reform movement of criminal justice even before the pandemic: Does keeping a large number of inmates under custody on small-time felonies pose a higher risk to everyone then allowing them to go out?

This virus, Gacon added, "does not care if you are a defendant, prosecutor, or a victim." Guilty or innocent, the ex-district attorney continued, COVID-19 "can kill you."

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