OAKLAND — Serving on a jury in Alameda County just became a lot harder on the wallet.
Gov. Gavin Newsom unexpectedly cut funding for a two-year pilot program that boosted Alameda County jurors’ daily reimbursement rates to $100 a day, the Alameda County Superior Court system announced Thursday. The move — detailed in the governor’s May revised budget — means jurors here will once again go back to receiving $15 a day for their service.
Alameda County Public Defender Brendan Woods immediately slammed the cut as “disheartening and cruel.” Compensation has routinely been one of the biggest barriers to people serving on juries, and he had lauded the pilot program as a key means for lower-income residents to serve on juries with greater regularity.
“It’s devastating — it’s absolutely shameful that this money is being cut,” Woods said. He questioned the wisdom of eliminating an initiative that amounted to such a tiny sliver of the state’s overall criminal justice spending. “To cut this program after it’s been in place for eight months is shameful. I just don’t understand it.”
On Thursday, the Alameda County Superior Court’s presiding judge also lamented the change.
“We share the disappointment of our justice partners who had hoped this study would provide insight into how increased compensation could diversify jury pools,” Judge Thomas Nixon said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “Jurors are an essential part of our judicial system, and we need to do all we can to increase participation.”
Newsom’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alameda County was among seven counties across California to participate in the $27 million pilot program, which began in August 2024 and had been expected to continue for two years, or until funding ran out. It also boosted mileage reimbursement for travel to and from courthouses from 34 cents a mile to 67 cents a mile.
The reason for the program was simple: with jurors currently only receiving barely enough money every day for a few cups of coffee, many had begged to be left off jury panels, claiming financial hardship. As a result, juries often disproportionately skewed in favor of wealthier people, those who could convince their employer to keep paying them while they served, or people for whom working is not a concern at all.
Often, it wasn’t enough to cover a sandwich and a bag of chips — an important barometer, given that jurors do not receive money for meals while serving. Jurors also only get $1 off the $7-a-day cost to park in the county parking garage closest to the Rene C. Davidson courthouse in downtown Oakland, where many of the county’s most serious — and longest-running — trials are held.
The other counties involved in the pilot included El Dorado, Fresno, Imperial, Monterey, San Bernardino and Shasta counties.
Jurors already serving on juries will continue to receive $100 a day until their service is complete, the court system said. However, anyone who was selected beginning Wednesday will go back to the old $15-a-day rate, as well as the previous mileage reimbursement amount.
As part of the program, the National Center for State Courts was supposed to survey jurors and determine the efficacy of the pilot program. It remains unclear whether the center will issue any reports, given how the pilot program ended so quickly.
Woods said some attorneys in Alameda County had told him that juries appeared to become more diverse with the raised rate. Cutting the program, he said, “makes no sense” given how Black defendants and people of color have historically been incarcerated at disproportionately high rates.
“They’re going to continue to be judged by people who are rich, white and affluent, who can afford to serve as jurors,” Woods said. “That’s not a just system.”
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at [email protected].
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