12 Search results for "cash bail"

Signed by Governor Jerry Brown on Tuesday, a new Californian reform bill, called the California Money Bail Reform Act, will abolish the cash bail system for all defendants awaiting a trial. Instead of cash bail, courts in different jurisdictions will create algorithms to decide who stays in custody and who leaves while they await trial.

Larry Krasner, Philadelphia’s District Attorney, moved on Wednesday to eliminate the policy of seeking cash bail for 25 non-violent offenses, including driving while intoxicated, marijuana possession, and forgery. This move comes as the latest in a series of similar cases in states like California, New York, and Texas aimed at reducing the use of monetary […]

The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (RFK) Foundation, led by Kerry Kennedy, started a month-long mission to bail out hundreds of women and juveniles at Rikers Island. It’s become the largest mass bailout in history.

Following a ruling by Houston judge Lee H. Rosenthal of Federal District Court last year, Judge Eldon E. Fallon of the Louisiana Eastern District Court has also ruled against the implementation of money bail, calling it a violation of equal protection and due process. In the New Orleans case, the judge struck down the city’s kickback […]

by Jamila Dawn Mitchell  Every year, 90% of the 250,000 people held in Illinois jails are incarcerated pretrial, prior to actual convictions, putting the rate of pretrial incarceration far above the national average of 67%. The percentage of pretrial detentions range county to county – with 51% of the jail population in Tazewell County and […]

Editor’s Note: This month at BYP, we will be exploring Black Liberation & Organizing, and we are interested in publishing works that address these topics. How do we hold politicians accountable to Black communities? Is that even possible? What should be our role in the electoral politics? What does abolition look like in practice? What […]

Coalitions of young people from activist organizations like Assata’s Daughters, BYP100, and Black Lives Matter, Chicago have been demonstrating against Cook County State Attorney Anita Alvarez for years now. Their efforts reached a fever pitch in the weeks following the November 2015 release of footage of the murder of LaQuan McDonald on October 20, 2014. Their concerns were stemming […]

I come from folks who organized rent parties and bail funds, who put money away for rainy days or times when mamas needed to escape dysfunctional and abusive households. I come from folks who believe in direct giving and show it. Folks who give hugs and offer handshakes in order to exchange money discreetly. Folks who […]

By Ragini Srikrishna and Monica Mohapatra Before the controversy around Amazon coming to New York dominated the headlines, the mayor and city officials were quietly working on opening four new skyscraper jails within the city. Although the city’s plan to close the Rikers jails complex solicited initial excitement within criminal justice communities, it has since […]

by Tiffany Hobbs  I hope Jesus doesn’t look like the white man on the wall. That flowy-locked iteration of the Messiah they wanted Black people to believe in would find his alabaster skin colored with surprise as Ms. Aretha Franklin entered the gates and demanded payment—her heavenly reward—upfront. Her blessings must be plentiful, as she […]

One of the reasons that the United States has such a disproportionately high prison population is that a lot of people just can’t afford to avoid jail once they are accused of a crime. Although it’s law in most states that judges should set bond that defendants can actually afford, this isn’t often the case. Cook […]

Patricia Larry holds a photograph of her son, Darius Simmons, 13 (AP Photo/Dinesh Ramde) Just a few short months ago Hip-Hop journalist Davey D blogged about the 29 Black people that had been killed by police or those claiming to be security since 2012, 16 after the murder of Trayvon Martin. This was before police […]