L.A. Ended a Zero-Bail COVID Rule, and Now the Jail Population is Growing In June, a judge ended an emergency order to slow the spread of COVID-19 in LA’s jails, enraging civil-rights advocates. Nili Blanck
Five Times Miami’s New Police Chief Got It Wrong on Public Safety Art Acevedo’s recent comments reveal an official who, despite his “good cop” veneer, has played fast and loose with the facts when it comes to addressing public safety. Eoin Higgins
How Chesa Boudin Is Pursuing His Promise to Reduce Incarceration After more than a year in office—and despite pushback—the San Francisco DA’s policies have kept people out of jails and prisons. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Virtually No One is Dangerous Enough to Justify Jail A common sense cost-benefit analysis of pretrial detention. Sandra Mayson, Megan Stevenson
Illinois State Lawmakers Vote To Eliminate Cash Bail The move is part of a broader criminal justice reform bill that also ends prison gerrymandering, and mandates body cameras for all police departments. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Newly Elected Los Angeles DA Will End Cash Bail in Nation’s Largest Prosecutor Office On his first day in office, George Gascón said prosecutors will not seek bail starting Jan. 1, a win for criminal justice reformers. Eliyahu Kamisher
Kyle Rittenhouse Bought His Freedom. Kalief Browder Could Not. The Rittenhouse case raises particularly pointed questions about what we are really talking about when we talk about bail. Cori Bush
Criminal Justice Advocates Say New Law Undermines Georgia’s Efforts at Bail Reform The law, known as SB 402, eliminates the use of signature bonds for a number of felonies, putting poor people who might not be able to afford cash bail at a disadvantage. Victoria Law
Law Enforcement Leaders Agree: Money Bail Has To End, Especially In A Pandemic The current coronavirus crisis underscores our urgent need to look hard at our pretrial justice system. Eliminating money bail is a necessary first step. Ronal Serpas, Taryn Merkl
Rikers Island Physician Voices Coronavirus Fears As Cuomo Meets With Officials Looking To Scuttle Bail Reforms Late Wednesday, the chief physician at the Rikers jail complex said on Twitter that judges and prosecutors must not leave New York City's jailed population ‘in harm’s way.’ Lauren Gill
Cash Bail Is Creating a Crisis in Rural Jails A federal lawsuit alleges lack of due process in a rural Tennessee county, and reform advocates say its jail is hardly an outlier. Jessica Pishko
Criminal Justice Group Drops Support For Pretrial Risk Assessment Tools As Ohio Justices Seek To Block Their Use Reform advocates say the risk assessments are racially biased and are not effective at their key tasks: predicting the likelihood someone will return to court. Dawn R. Wolfe
A Lack Of Evidence Doesn’t Keep The New York Times From Declaring a ‘Spike In Crime’ In two articles, the Times asserts a ‘spike’ in crime since the passage of bail reform in New York, an increase that the articles themselves note they can’t prove. Adam H. Johnson
As Bail Reform Takes Hold Across New York State, a Rural County Wrestles With The Future Of Its Aging Jail The debate around bail reform focused predominantly on New York City's Rikers Island, but the bigger impact may be upstate, where almost two-thirds of the state’s jail capacity is located. Ted Alcorn
Michigan Task Force Calls On State To Significantly Reduce Mass Incarceration In County Jails A bipartisan group has recommended substantive changes to the state’s legal justice system, including cash bail reform and proposals to divert people living with mental illnesses away from incarceration. Dawn R. Wolfe
Pretrial Reform Must Go Beyond Ending Cash Bail As a society, we can’t continue to subject hundreds of thousands of people to the trauma of incarceration before they face a jury of their peers. Andy Philipson
Police and Sheriff’s Departments Join Media Campaign Against Bail Reform In New York State A wave of sensationalist press is not just coming from New York City, but also from county sheriff and city police departments frustrated by bail reform that they claim is ‘too broad.’ Adam H. Johnson
The Media’s Misguided Backlash Against Criminal Justice Reforms in D.C. and New York Many liberals support reform in theory. But when unpopular decisions need to be made, it’s back to the 1990s “Tough on Crime” playbook. Adam H. Johnson
Massachusetts Prosecutors Are Using ‘Dangerousness’ Holds To Keep People Incarcerated Pretrial Advocates say that despite the election of several progressive prosecutors in the state, there’s a substantial increase in such detentions, which are stymieing gains made through policies to limit cash bail. Joshua Vaughn
Nation’s Largest Bail Fund Plans To Stop Bailing People Out Of Jail The Brooklyn Community Bail Fund said it doesn’t want to ‘prop up an unjust system.’ Kira Lerner
Pleading Guilty to Get Out of Jail The criminalization of poverty in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, has led to a staggering increase in incarcerated people, all at a huge cost for defendants and taxpayers alike. Joshua Vaughn
New Data Reveals the Racial Disparities in Pennsylvania’s Money Bail Industry Despite accounting for less than 12 percent of the state’s adult population, roughly 40 percent of all bail bonds were issued in cases involving a Black defendant. Joshua Vaughn
New Orleans Prosecutor Calls New Bail Fund ‘Extremely Disturbing’ Advocates noted that bail gives prosecutors leverage to get guilty pleas from people who can’t afford to buy their way out of jail. Raven Rakia
Georgia Woman Endured Arrest, Million-Dollar Bond, and Months of Jail Over ‘Meth’ That Was Actually Cotton Candy A notoriously unreliable roadside drug test administered by Monroe County sheriff's deputies led to Dasha Fincher being charged with methamphetamine trafficking. Lauren Gill
