Nearly half a million people in the United States are in jail right now without being convicted of a crime, simply because they can’t come up with the money to pay cash bail. To try and fix this system, public defender and activist Robin Steinberg asked a straightforward question: What if we paid bail for them? In conversation with NPR’s TED Radio Hour host Manoush Zomorodi, Steinberg shares how her nonprofit The Bail Project – which uses a revolving fund to post bail for those who can’t afford it – is scaling up their efforts across the country and rolling out a new community-based model to fight mass incarceration.
We need your help to secure freedom for people trapped behind bars because of unaffordable bail.
Your support gives hope to the thousands of people still trapped in pretrial detention. We’ve supported more than 40,000 clients through free bail assistance and community-based support services like affordable housing and healthcare, and mental health services. You can help secure the freedom of thousands more.
The Bail Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is only able to provide direct services and sustain systems change work through donations from people like you.





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