In October 2018, hundreds of volunteers for Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights posted $1.2 million in bail to free 105 people from Rikers Island and other New York City jails.
The effort was the largest mass bailout to date and served as part of a national campaign to demonstrate how cash bail not only disproportionately harms Black and Brown communities and those experiencing poverty but that there are better, nonpunitive solutions to ensuring someone shows up to court.
Of the 90 people who have since had scheduled court appearances, only two failed to show up as of Friday.
“The mass bailout proves that the system is unfair and targets people of color and people living in poverty,” Kerry Kennedy, president of RFK Human Rights told the New York Times.