Jail conditions in the U.S. are a national crisis – many jails are unsafe, overcrowded, and lack basic medical healthcare. Hundreds of people die while in jail every year. And the majority of people in American jails – on any given day, around 540,000 people – are being detained before trial. Here, we follow jail conditions across the country.
Yunan Tutu was 26 when he died inside the Pima County jail. The court had ruled Tutu incompetent to stand trial, and charged jail wardens to care for Tutu and “restore competency” before he would head to a trial. He languished inside one of the nation’s deadliest jails for six months....
Proposed state constitutional amendment is misguided. Bipartisan bail reform bills offer a better alternative....
Thousands of single black mothers are unjustly held in jails across the country, simply because they cannot afford to pay bail. This article surveys various efforts to fight this unfair system including The Bail Project, and includes the voice of TBP's National Director of Legal and Policy, Twyla Carter....
TBP's Senior Policy Counsel Nicole Zayas-Fortier and past intern Gabriel Henriquez write about the desperate need for bipartisan efforts to aid ongoing crisis in Michigan's jails. If the proposed legislature were successful, jails would become less crowded and marginalized populations would be better protected....
David Gaspar, National Director of Operations, defends The Bail Project's work in Indianapolis. Gaspar highlights the complexities of the issue, describing why TBP is under such scrutiny in Indiana but also why now more than ever we must step up and be clear about just what is at stake — and for whom....
The Bail Project's Asia Johnson spoke with The 19th about what it's like as a woman to be incarcerated during the pandemic....
St. Louis bail disruptor Tracy Stanton penned a powerful op-ed for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch sharing her personal experience at the inhumane Workhouse jail....
The Bail Project's statewide advocacy and policy manager Mike Milton wrote an op-ed for the St. Louis American on the critical need to address the systemic issues of poverty, institutional racism and public health inequities which drive so many into the criminal legal system....
"Bail reform is ultimately about protecting the bedrock principle of the American legal system — the presumption of innocence — and ensuring that it applies to all of us equally."...
