The Pittsburgh Municipal Court in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania has launched an initiative to try and provide public defenders for most…
Browsing: Bail
The stay to halt the elimination of cash bail in Illinois was issued hours before the new policies were set to take effect Sunday after a county judge ruled that the provision was unconstitutional.
The issue the law is hoping to tackle is a national one, with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights releasing a January 2022 report on the civil rights implications of cash bail finding that between 1970 and 2015, there was a 433% increase in the number of individuals who have been detained pre-trial.
The attorneys claim that the recently passed SAFE-T Act, which eliminates cash bail in most cases, is unconstitutional and a threat to public safety.
Bail bond companies earn billions in profits while providing little benefit to the public, charges a new policy paper released by the Prison Policy Initiative.
In a case linking the debates over bail reform and the future of Rikers, a NYC judge ordered the release of a man citing his inability to pay a $500 bail and the violent and increasingly lethal conditions at the notorious jail facility.
Thousands of jailed individuals face “de facto disenfranchisement” even though they have not been convicted of a crime that disqualifies them from voting, simply because they were unable to make bail, advocates tell Stateline.
A groundbreaking study on bail reform in Harris County, Texas found that dropping money bail for individuals charged with nonviolent offenses produced significant declines in conviction and incarceration, as well as a 6 percent drop in recidivism.
According to a new tool used by the nonprofit Philadelphia Bail Fund, five city zip codes accounted for nearly a third of all bail paid last year, the majority of residents being people of color and a third or more living in poverty.
Four civil rights groups argued that it is unconstitutional to incarcerate people because they are poor and can’t make bail.