Over 400,000 people in the U.S. are detained pretrial, according to the Prison Police Initiative, with many of them because they can’t afford bail.
Our cash bail system remains even though studies indicate there is no connection between bail and guaranteeing someone will reappear for future court proceedings. It’s also been shown in study after study to be a racist and discriminatory system, to get Black and brown people to plead guilty to offenses even when innocent.
Studies also indicate jails have worse living conditions than prisons and that cash bail keeps communities in debt.
Around the country, there are several groups now making bail payments on behalf of people who are jailed and who can’t afford bail, such as The Bail Project at the national level or the Minnesota Freedom Fund at the state level.
There is pushback though.
In Minnesota, a Republican State Rep. Mary Franson, is trying to get the Bail Abatement Non-Profit Exclusion or BANE Act (House File 4252) passed to prevent non-profits paying for bail for others from registering.
In Indiana, the Bail Project recently lost an appeal in federal court which upheld a law passed in the state in 2022 limiting who charitable organizations can bail out of jail.
The Bail Project argued cash bail payments should be viewed as a form of advocacy and should be protected by the First Amendment. The court disagreed, deciding that lawmakers possess the ability to regulate charitable bail funds.
There are other umbrella organizations such as the Community Justice Exchange which has a National Bail Fund Network. In Nevada it lists the Vegas Freedom Fund.
According to its donation page, the southern Nevada-based entity was “founded in 2018 in an effort to combat mass incarceration in Clark County. We free people in need, reunite families, and restore the presumption of innocence. Bail is typically returned at the end of a case, so your donation will come back to the Vegas Freedom Fund, and used to free another Nevadan.” The contribution rules indicate that the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada is a fiscal sponsor of the Vegas Freedom Fund.
Should Reno get its own local bail fund?