money bail
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When NY Ended Money Bail, a Prosecutor Trained DAs to Keep People in Jail
As New York joined a handful of other states in passing sweeping criminal justice reforms, one of the state’s top prosecutors helped attorneys and legislators find loopholes to subvert laws intended to end money bail and guarantee speedy trials. In April, New York Democrats, who controlled the governorship and both legislative branches, passed measures that…
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100 Black Moms Freed on Mother’s Day Thanks to Nationwide Bail Out Campaign
In their largest bail out effort to date, the National Bail Out collective announced Tuesday morning that their third annual Mother’s Day campaign freed 100 black mothers—and raised an additional $1 million to set even more incarcerated women free. The organization’s landmark achievement was part of the third annual Black Mama’s Bail Out campaign. In…
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Locking Up Black People Is Big Business
Last week, I got to participate in American Injustice: A BET Town Hall. It’s a series of live conversations with leaders from Cory Booker to Kamala Harris about how we got into this crisis of mass incarceration. It’ll air this Sunday. If there’s one thing I want people to take away from it, it’s that…
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ACLU Sues Philadelphia Courts Over Money Bail Practices
In 2015, Eugene Lee spent three months in jail for a botched armed robbery. While that might not seem like a long time, you should know that Lee was not convicted before being sent to jail. He was also not the gunman in the incident. In fact, the robbery involved a toy gun that someone…
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Money Bail Might Be the Most Racist, Immoral Part of America’s Criminal Injustice System
When listing all of the problems in America’s justice system, the racial disparities are too numerous to count, the facts, alone are astounding. The rate of marijuana use is about the same for blacks and whites (although more blacks say they have never used marijuana), but blacks are more than three times more likely to…
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Why They Kneel: 'What's Free?' The Money Bail Revolution in Philadelphia and D.C.
To examine the injustice and inequality that prompted some NFL players to protest during the national anthem, each week, for the remainder of the NFL season, The Root will explore the data behind racial disparities in the two cities represented in the National Football League’s premiere matchup—Monday Night Football. Tonight, the football team from Washington,…
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Bail Reform Is About Criminal and Economic Justice
There are many injustices in our nation’s criminal-justice system. But one of the greatest injustices occurs before the accused are even convicted of a crime. It’s the application of our money-bail system, and it works like this: Let’s say a mother is accused of shoplifting at a department store and is arrested. A judge sets…
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Kamala Harris Takes on Bail Reform in Her 1st Bill as Senator … Oh, and Rand Paul Is There, Too
In her first major piece of legislation since taking office, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), along with everyone’s favorite Republican, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), has introduced a bipartisan bail-reform bill—the Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act of 2017—which would encourage states to stop holding accused offenders in jail who can’t pay bail for their release. As it…