12 Search results for "cash bond"

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 […]

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.

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 […]

The Trump administration announced over the weekend that immigrants who legally use public aid such as food assistance programs and section 8 housing would have this used against them in green card applications in its newest attempt at keeping Black and brown people out of the country. This new policy could potentially force millions of […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 Mitchell The emancipation of freed slaves and subsequent constitutional amendments of the 20th century meant that white people could no longer marginalize Black folks through the physical bondage of chattel slavery. Faced with new restrictions, they quickly resigned to maintaining their rule through a new age of psychological warfare on the formerly enslaved, […]

For those of us who consider ourselves believers in social justice, reckoning with the Thanksgiving holiday can easily become hairy. On the one hand, it is a rare opportunity for families, particularly those that are working class, to come together, eat delicious food (depending on who makes it) and strengthen their bonds. And yet, as […]

Close to twenty-five percent of the Chicago Public Schools $423 million budget is going to just three schools in the district. All three schools are selective enrollment high schools on the North Side. 

This story originally appeared in the New York Times. By: Andrea Elliot She wakes to the sound of breathing. The smaller children lie tangled beside her, their chests rising and falling under winter coats and wool blankets. A few feet away, their mother and father sleep near the mop bucket they use as a toilet. […]

I hate money ’cause it makes me numb. – M.I.A. Yesterday, I had to stop by the main library on campus to return a recalled book.  (I’m coming for you, book recaller! What am I supposed to use for coasters now that you’ve taken a liking to all my books on racial passing?  You suck!)  […]