On Tuesday, June 13th, the Robert F. Kennedy Young Leaders held a launch event to generate sign-ups for the Dollar Bail Brigade, a coalition of volunteers giving their time to fight mass incarceration, one dollar at a time.
Due to the technological incompetence of the New York criminal processing system and its archaic software, people are detained all frequently detained for long periods of time in dangerous New York jails over just one dollar of unpaid bail. Even if the accused person can afford to pay one dollar, they are not given the opportunity to pay their own bail. That’s how broken the system is. Members of the Dollar Bail Brigade personally commute to jails whenever dollar bail gets set, to pay the 100 pennies and grant their fellow New Yorkers freedom.
The event was a roaring success, featuring remarks from the Bronx Freedom Fund's Ezra Ritchin, as well as testimony from one of the Bronx Freedom Fund's clients, who spoke beautifully to his personal, lived experience being put through the criminal justice system, and being bailed out when he had no one else on his side.
All told, the Robert F. Kennedy Young Leaders generated almost 200 new sign-ups for the Dollar Bail Brigade. Together, we are going to fight back against the cruelty and injustice of pre-trial detention and mass incarceration.