The Cambridge Homeless Court takes a different approach from most, connecting defendants with resources outside the court system. But critics say it doesn’t get to the root of the problem: “Communities are intentionally targeting the homeless by making it a crime to sleep on the street, or panhandle, or by selectively enforcing petty laws, using the criminal justice system to address the social service problem. Our preference would be simply stop criminalizing that behavior in the first place.”
“Suicide, long the leading cause of death in U.S. jails, hit a high of 50 deaths for every 100,000 inmates in 2014, the latest government data available…Many jails have been sued or investigated in recent years for allegedly refusing inmates medication to help manage mental illness, failing to properly monitor them or ignoring cries for help…
More than half the suicides or attempts occurred during the first week of being jailed, and about 80% of the inmates were awaiting trial.”
Greetings from Louisville, Kentucky. Last month, we marked one year since the launch of our Bail Project site in the Derby City and what a journey it has been!
To date, we have paid bail for over 900 Louisvillians, reuniting families, restoring the presumption of innocence, and helping our city fight mass incarceration. We’re now gearing up for our second year. We’ll be kicking things off by marching with the Presbyterian Church (USA) this week to call for bail reform.
A few weeks ago, I caught up with our very first client, Mr. Thomas Gibbs. Mr. Gibbs is a retiree and grandfather who spent several days in jail without his medications because he could not afford an $800 bail.
Here’s Mr. Gibbs a year later, celebrating with me our power “to move mountains” when we come together as a community to demand justice and true freedom.
One year later, I continue to be inspired by clients like Mr. Gibbs and the overwhelming community support we have received. From our amazing partners at the Louisville Metro Public Defenders to the Louisville chapter of Showing Up For Racial Justice (LSURJ) and the Presbyterian Church (USA), there’s a strong community behind this movement in Kentucky. Together, we are paving the way for real, long-lasting change.
Freedom should truly be free. This idea is nothing new, but here, in Louisville, we are revolutionizing how we get there, together.
A federal judgeruled last week that St. Louis jails – including the infamous Workhouse where over 90% of people are detained pretrial –can’t incarcerate people simply because they can’t pay bail. The judgecited data from our St. Louis site in ruling that: “There is no evidence that financial conditions of release are more effective than alternatives for ensuring court appearance and public safety.” However, as of now, St. Louis courts are holding up new bail hearings for people entitled to them.
Thank you for reaching out. The Bail Project is in the process of expanding. At this time we can only serve individuals in cities where we have a site. If you or a loved one needs help paying bail in one of the following cities please select your location and complete the form below.
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The Bail Project, Inc. is a nonprofit organization. We pay bail for people in need at no cost to them or their loved ones. We are an independent organization not affiliated with or a part of any law enforcement agency.
Our services are free of charge. If you receive an inquiry from someone claiming to be from The Bail Project and asking for money to pay bail for you or your loved one, please do not send any money. Instead reach out to us directly using this form or by giving us a call at (323) 366-0799.
You should not send us any confidential information in response to this webform. Whatever you disclose to us will not be privileged or confidential and The Bail Project, Inc. cannot protect this information if requested through a court.
Our Commitment to Privacy
The Bail Project’s website is a resource to raise awareness about the need for bail reform, and a portal for people who need bail assistance to reach our local teams. We are committed to communicating with you about your privacy when on our website, whether you are on our site browsing for information or requesting help. Our privacy policy is linked below and explains how we use and protect your information we collect on https://bailproject.org/ (“Service”). The Service is intended for users 18+ and we do not knowingly collect or solicit any information from anyone under the age of 13.
As the privacy policy linked below states, we collect information:
you provide directly to us;
information we collect from social and digital networks; and
information we collect through other third parties from your disclosures to them or your interactions with their services and products.
As you will see from our privacy policy, we use information obtained through the Service to operate, maintain, and enhance our organization and our services. We may use this information to communicate with you, such as to send you email messages, newsletters, and to follow up with you to offer information about Bail Project.
As stated more fully in our privacy policy below, we may share your information with third-party vendors and other service providers that perform services on our behalf, as needed to carry out their work for us, which may include managing our email forms and providing mailing services, providing tax, accounting and other services, providing our donations and store platforms, web hosting, providing analytic services, or procuring and reporting in connection with grants or other funding.
We will use commercially reasonable physical, administrative, and technological safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of your personal data at all times that your information is collected through our website.
The Service may integrate with or contain links to other third-party sites and services. We are not responsible or liable for the practices employed by third party websites or services embedded in, linked to, or linked from the Service and your interactions with any third-party website or service are subject to that third party’s own rules and policies. Although we do our best to honor the privacy preferences of visitors to our website, we are not able to respond to “Do Not Track” signals from your browser at this time, as we believe that there is no consistent industry standard for how to respond to those browser settings.
For more information on the above, including what we collect and your “opt out” choices, you can find our full Privacy Policy at bailproject.org/privacy-policy
Terms of Service
The Bail Project’s website is a resource to raise awareness about the need for bail reform, and a portal for people who need bail assistance to reach our local teams. We are committed to communicating with you clearly, whether you are on our site browsing for information or requesting help. Our Terms of Service are linked below and explain the terms and conditions of using https://bailproject.org/