Lucas, the movement for cash bail reform is one fo the fast growing and
most widely supported areas of criminal justice reform. That's because
activists and communities understand that bail is not about justice or
safety, but wealth and poverty.
Sign the petition: We need cash bail reform now!
Right now, a person charged with a crime can either pay bail and live
free until they stand trial or, if they cannot afford it, be jailed until
their trial date. Folks with money pay bail while poor folks get jail.
And those in jail are far more likely to take pleas deals instead watching
the rest of their lives
(and finances) fall apart while they wait for a trial.
Cash bail reforms and reform legislation have already been
introduced in California, Colorado, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland,
Washington D.C. and more. This is a fight we can win!
Will you join the Daily Kos community in calling for an immediate end to
unfair bail practices, Lucas?
Sign the petition: We need cash bail reform now!
Keep fighting,
Irna Landrum, Daily Kos
P.S. You can read an earlier email I sent urging you to demand bail reform below.
Lucas, sign the petition: We need cash bail reform now!
Our cash bail system allows poor people who have never been convicted of
a crime or even stood trial to be locked away for years at a time, all
because they cannot afford to pay bail.
Kalief Browder was held at Riker's Island for three years, much of
it in solitary confinement, because his family could not afford to pay
his bail after he was accused of stealing a backpack. The state of New
York worked for three years to build a case against him and failed. Kalief
tragically
died by suicide two years after his release. He was 22 years old.
Kalief Browder's detention is
not a unique story. Cash bail creates a
system where people across the country are denied freedom of movement, employment,
and human rights despite being found guilty of no crime besides poverty.
Sign the petition: We need cash bail reform now!
Defendants are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. However, cash
bail puts poor people,
primarily people of color, behind bars the same as if they were convicted and greatly
increases the likelihood that they
will be convicted.
It's no coincidence that cash bail
primarily traps poor black and brown people, when police regularly target and overpolice
these communities.
Cash bail is one more tool designed to demean and disenfranchise black
and brown people.
Sign the petition: Reform cash bail now!
Keep fighting,
Irna Landrum, Daily Kos