Thread. Another teenager was killed by the cash bail system in Houston. He was 19, had an IQ of 62, and weighed 98 pounds. He had never been arrested before, and the DA and the judges put him in a cage because he couldn't pay a couple thousand dollars. His story is important.
The jail didn't even bother to bring the teenager to court for his own bail hearing b/c he was being evaluated for mental health issues. Despite never having been accused of a crime before, the judge agreed with DA that his release should be barred unless he paid $$$.
Jailing a person solely because they cannot pay cash is unconstitutional. The DA and judge here jailed the teenager without him even being at the hearing and without making the findings required by law--an intentional judicial act that is itself a federal felony crime.
He had been unhoused and living on the street, so he couldn't reach his family or pay the cash. He became the 18th human being to die in custody in downtown Houston this year.
According to court records, no lawyer filed any motions to seek his release from jail after he was illegally jailed solely because he couldn't pay cash. No judge intervened to follow the Constitution. The bureaucracy is violent and senseless--it does not care about human life.
The jail in downtown Houston is a monstrous place. It now confines 9,300 people, including about 7,000 who are presumed innocent who are there solely because judges and DAs in Houston require cash payments before they let people out of their cages.
Take a moment to think about what it means that this is how our society determines who is caged and who isn't, and who lives and who dies.
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