Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #CashBail

Most recents (7)

🧵 It was an honor to share space with @NathanLHecht @MarcALevin & Insha Rahman @verainstitute on this urgent conversation. My 13 yr old's feedback was that I spent too much time criticizing & not enough on solutions.

So here we go:
1) Demand that your county governments use this once in a lifetime opportunity to robustly invest ARPA funds in stable housing, crisis respite units, community based mental healthcare & substance use treatment, instead of wasting it on expanding punitive solutions. #CareNotCages
2) Follow @TxJailProject to learn more about our Community Safety Agenda campaign in Harris county which envisions a people's budget for creating truly safe & healthy communities.

3) Call your state representatives and ask them to unhook #CashBail from pretrial detention.
Read 5 tweets
In prepping for this panel today, I did some math on the lesser known impacts of our #CashBail system.
Per @TxCommJailStand as of yesterday, a total of 121 people have died in TX county jails this year. For perspective, the state of TX has executed 98 people since 2012.
Of the 20 souls who lost their lives in Harris county jail this year, 12 were detained on #CashBail and 4 died even before their bond could be set. Legally innocent people were allowed to die because they were too poor to buy their freedom.
The national suicide rate in jails is 3.5 times that of the free population which is significant b'coz they should be at lower risk since they're supposed to be under direct supervision.
Read 4 tweets
🧵This weekend we’ll be talking about bail in Texas at #TribFest22. To ground our comments, we’ll be sharing stories of community members in Smith County whose stories illustrate the cruel consequences of wealth based detention in everyday communities across the state.
Today we’d like to talk to you about Karen R., from Smith county. Karen is an elder Smith co. community member who, two years ago, was fighting stage three breast cancer when she was arrested and kept in jail because she couldn’t afford $165.
Karen’s continuity of care - both for cancer and her mental health - were cruelly and devastatingly interrupted by her unconstitutional confinement because she was too poor.
Read 8 tweets
#FactCheck 🧵re: #CashBail, @TheOtherMandela #Barnes & @RonJohnsonWI
* In our country everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty at trial. This is true even though they may have been arrested & charged w/a crime.

*#Wisconsin & the fed. gov't both have ... 1/9
#WisPol ImageImage
#FactCheck 🧵re: #CashBail, @TheOtherMandela #Barnes & @RonJohnsonWI
...criminal laws, but different approaches re: protecting constitutional #RightsOfAccused AND #PublicSafety.

*U.S. government procedure does NOT generally rely on cash bail — it only considers ... 2/9
#WisPol Image
#FactCheck 🧵re: #CashBail, @TheOtherMandela #Barnes & @RonJohnsonWI
... public safety. #Wisconsin, in contrast, relies on setting an amount of #CashBail to ensure defendant shows up for trial.

*Wisco’s system of cash bail gives great advantages to ppl w/money... 3/9
#WisPol Image
Read 9 tweets
The system of #CashBail is a predatory financial institution. Cash bail is nothing more than when a person pays money to leave jail before their trial. This money is supposed to guarantee that they appear for their trial or the money will be used to help restore their victim.
Bail reform is almost as old as the history of bail, which alone should make you question its viability. #CashBail predominantly affects the poor. A wealthier person can simply pay the bail and be released. Those in poverty are stuck in jail awaiting trial, sometimes for years.
Pretrial detention costs $13.6 billion in taxpayer dollars each year, nationwide. Roughly 451,000 people are held behind bars pretrial, so you can imagine the buildup in cost to taxpayers for housing and feeding these potentially innocent defendants.
Read 6 tweets
1/7
A really important story about the power of one intentional and persistent community advocate. But what's more striking about the amazing @Dalilareyn82 is…

Their Unlikely Alliance Began at Whataburger. Can They Reform a Texas Jail? themarshallproject.org/2020/07/01/the… via @MarshallProj
2/7...her immensely empathetic nature. When this piece came out yesterday and congratulatory calls were pouring in, she called to say how sad she was that 64 yr old Tommy Gene Lindsey had fallen through the cracks again - both in life and in death.
3/7 She wanted to dedicate this feature to his untimely and preventable death which occurred just a week ago on June 22nd in a solitary cell in Smith county jail. The second custody death in less than two months. Particularly tragic b'cos Lindsey had a history of mental illness.
Read 7 tweets
A1.1: In the US, bail, the release from custody of a person accused of a crime, has become synonymous w/ money bail or cash bail. Once you base decisions on whom to incarcerate on the ability to pay cash bail, you ensure that jails are filled w/ poor ppl. #TheBailTrap
A1.2: #Cashbail drives #massincarceration: pretrial incarceration rates have grown almost 500% since 1970, far more than the growth rate for state & federal prisons.#TheBailTrap #JusticeinCrisis vera.org/publications/f…
A1.3: Money doesn’t equal safety. A system dependent on money means that people who are poor go to jail while people who may pose a credible immediate danger to others but have money go free. #TheBailTrap #JusticeinCrisis
Read 5 tweets

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