Criminal Legal System
-
RFK Human Rights and Local Partners Celebrate Major Bail Reform Win in Texas
Tags Share More than 60% of people in Texas’ jails—some 40,000 individuals—have not been convicted of a crime. In fact, most of them are only in jail because they can’t afford to pay bail. Texas Governor Greg Abbott knows full well that eliminating cash bail could spare tens of thousands of his constituents from unfairly…
-
How Cash Bail Hurts Our Communities
Indefinite jailing based on what’s in your bank account is unfair, cruel, and does not make our communities safer.
-
How Cash Bail Robs People of Their Dignity and Resources
A new educational video shows how cash bail punishes the poor long before their day in court.
-
New York Should Vaccinate the Incarcerated
Tags Share Prisoners are at risk and it affects their whole community. In the early months of the pandemic, New York emerged as a leader in its response. It instituted an early mask mandate and rebounded from being the epicenter of the virus to the state with the lowest transmission rate and most significant health…
-
Access to Care, Better Jobs Key for Returning Citizens to Succeed
Policy solutions need to start behind bars and continue once incarcerated individuals are released.
-
RFK Human Rights Testimony on Solitary Confinement to the NYC Council Committee on Criminal Justice
In December 2020, RFK Human Rights submitted a testimony to the NYC Council Committee on Criminal Justice, commending the Council for its intention to end solitary confinement, yet highlighting how certain measures fell short.
-
Hundreds of People Freed From Jail in Time for the Holidays
People who would have been behind bars for months, even years, waiting for their day in court will now be able to safely return home to their families and communities.
-
Teen Who Spent 40 Days in Adult Prison Savors Second Chance
Tags Share In 2018, RFK Human Rights bailed out 16-year-old Rosalyn “Bird” Holmes from adult prison. Now, her charges have finally been dropped and she has a clean slate. Read the full article here. Module type not found: newsArticles
-
RFK Human Rights Calls for Californians to Oppose Prop 25
The injustice of money bail is real but Prop 25 isn’t the answer. Californians, please vote NO on Prop 25.
-
Case Update for Rosalyn “Bird” Holmes
Tags Share In May 2018, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights paid the $60,000 bail of Rosalyn “Bird” Holmes, then 16. Bird was being detained in an adult jail 50 miles from her home in Memphis under Tennessee’s antiquated “safekeeping” laws, which kept individuals under 18 detained pretrial and other vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women,…
-
Faces of Bail Reform
People directly affected by our wealth-based criminal legal system tell their stories.
-
How to Honor Civil Rights Leaders
Tags Share This week during 1964, the late Attorney General Robert Kennedy painted a bleak picture. Jails were a place where poor men were sent to rot, while rich men went home to await court dates. “Bail has become a vehicle for systematic injustice,” my father told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a hearing. “Every…
Share