GUTWRENCHING: Angel is a father. Grandfather. Husband. He & his wife Lydia are impoverished. Stole some bicycles to survive. Arrested. $20k bail. 15 days hell on Rikers. Family separation. “I still feel like I’m in jail.” Bail reform prevents this trauma.
A real bail story: “Everybody in my family looks up to me. And it makes me depressed that I can’t provide for my family. One of my daughters was about to give birth. She has health issues. And sometimes we don’t have any food.” 
“Not enough for soap. Wash our clothes. We get $200/month. To live. That’s for everything. I did it out of desperation.”
“I got arrested and they threw me in jail immediately. I felt like an animal. Handcuffed at all times. I didn’t sleep. I didn’t feel safe. I felt stressed out. I cried. I missed my family. It breaks you mentally & physically down.”
Jail is hell.
“I deal with complex PTSD, which gives me anxiety. And he is usually always right by my side.”
Angel was arrested and charged 2 years before new bail reforms laws took effect in New York.
Before bail reform started. Judges regularly chose to set unaffordable amounts of bail to jail people before a fair trial — before conviction, presumed innocent.
That’s what a judge chose to do to Angel. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to pay.
And he was sent to Rikers.
Now multiply this judge’s harsh decision by tens of thousands across New York State every year.
“I went to court & they said it was $20,000 bail. I felt like, ‘Are they insane?’ The lawyer just said we only had $50. I came here. This is literally all I have. It’s everything in my pocket.”
“As they were taking him back, it sunk in. It was like a jab in my heart. Like I couldn’t even stand up. And I was like, where in the world am I going to get that kind of money?”
“My heart dropped. And I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know what to do.”
“I was literally asking anyone I knew. Look. I’ve never asking for nothing, but I’m wondering if you can give me $50, $20? I didn’t sleep. We were just asking anyone we knew. We begged. You know?”
It’s never gonna happen.
Angel suffered on Rikers Island for 15 days.
At $925 dollars per day, Angel’s incarceration cost New Yorkers $13,875. Money that could have been used to address his family’s needs, rather than traumatize them.
Finally, Lydia was able to raise enough to pay a bail bonds company and Angel was released.
Under the new bail reform laws in NY, he would not have stepped foot in jail unless he was convicted and sentenced.
Instead, be would have stayed with his family and gotten services. Their struggles wouldn’t now continue.
“I’m glad I got out, but now know I have to pay the person back. We’re now $3000 in debt.”
Angel’s case is now in treatment court. Been back to court 20 times. Never rearrested. The case is now set for dismissal.
He’s still traumatized: “When I go to sleep, I wake up. And feel like I’m still in jail.”
Thanks to bail reform that just went into effect in January 2020 in New York, tens of thousands of New Yorkers and their families will be spared the suffering that Angel and Lydia experienced. Every year.
Unfortunately, opponents of bail reform, including the @NYSenateDems, want to kill the new laws & make things worse than even before. They want judges to jail people like Angel without even the possibility of paying bail. Which will only increase jail populations & trauma.
Support bail reform. Keep families together. Visit JusticeNotFear.org for the truth about bail reform and to call on lawmakers to stand firm.
