VOICES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
How Cash Bail Hurts Our Communities
4/15/2021Mass Incarceration
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Of the more than 1,400 people incarcerated in the local Baton Rouge jail, 80 percent have not been convicted of a crime. Many of these people—disproportionately from Black and Brown communities—have been denied their freedom and risk losing their jobs, homes, and even custody of their children, simply because they can’t afford to pay their bail.
Our new video, in partnership with the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison Reform Coalition and the Fair Fight Initiative, shows how the cash bail system in Baton Rouge, and in countless cities like it across the country, violates the tenet that we’re innocent until proven guilty.
It’s time to eliminate this inherently racist system.
For more perspective
CAMPAIGN—
Funds for FreedomWorking with Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp, we’ve invested $1 million to bail people from jails at the height of the pandemic, sparing hundreds from the unjust cruelties of pretrial detention.
CAMPAIGN—
Protecting Bail Reform in New York StateAlongside celebrities like Sam Waterston and members of the #FREEnewyork coalition, we worked to prevent rollbacks to the new law reforming bail in New York.
For over half a century, we’ve known that cash bail violates our moral obligations and civil rights. Now, public health is on the line.
Learn MorePeople directly affected by our wealth-based criminal legal system tell their stories.
Learn MoreHelp Us Protect Human Rights
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