Criminal Legal System
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Mass Bail Out
Share In October 2018, RFK Human Rights freed more than 100 people from New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail who were incarcerated pretrial because they couldn’t afford their bail. The effort highlighted how money bail discriminates against people of color and those experiencing poverty—generating unprecedented demand for reform.
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Criminal Justice and the New Jim Crow
Learners create educational materials on mass incarceration, reach out to their state representatives, and take mindful action with the organizations of two human rights defenders, Andrea James and Bryan Stevenson.
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Holding Sheriffs Accountable
Q&A with Linda Franks on the launch of Communities for Sheriff Accountability.
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Texas Community Bail Funds Grow
Tags Share Sparked by protests following George Floyd’s murder, bail funds have experienced a surge of attention and fundraising. Just last summer, bail funds received over $90 million in donations—including $1 million from RFK Human Rights and Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp—to support their urgent work freeing people from pretrial detention. The Dallas Morning…
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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…
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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.
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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.
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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…
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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.
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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.
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