This is a thread about cash bail. A number of prosecutors, police, and media pundits are blaming "bail reform" for specific crimes, like the recent tragedy in Wisconsin. Here's the truth about cash bail.
First, have you ever seen a bail hearing? Watch this video to see what we're talking about. Does this barbaric assembly line bureaucracy look like safety to you?
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1189353978523463680
Second, only the U.S. and the Philippines allow for-profit cash bail. The rest of the world thinks it is grotesque and irrational to allow private corporations to profit by determining who is caged and who is free with their families based on how much cash they have.
Third, there are 400,000 human beings in cages as you read this tweet solely because their families do not have enough cash to buy their release. They would be home with their children, in school, at work, getting the medical care they needed, etc. if they had money.
Fourth, the scientific evidence is that cash bail makes communities *less safe* by increasing instability, lost jobs, lost housing, separating kids, interrupting medical/mental health care, traumatizing people in jail, etc. People who say otherwise doing equiv. of climate denial.
Fifth, you should understand the stakes. Here are a few individual people's stories from our casework @CivRightsCorps that are representative and that you should take a moment to absorb:
https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1358086745443696640
Sixth, we see 1000s of stories like these in our cases every year. And the scientific evidence is that each year a person spends in jail/prison *takes two years from their life.* We cage so many people that it *lowers overall U.S. life expectancy.*
https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1454486994982158337
Seventh, our civil rights case @CivRightsCorps in Harris County (Houston) featured in the above video, has resulted in the release of 15,000-20,000 human beings every year charged with minor offenses in that single county alone.
Eighth, despite overwhelming public health evidence and international experience for ending these cash bail practices, a small group of vocal cops, prosecutors, and reporters has embarked on a campaign of false fearmongering about "bail reform." @FWDus fwd.us/news/new-york-…
A couple facts to know about bail fearmongering: since almost nowhere in the U.S. has done meaningful bail reform, the people blaming "bail reform" for bad outcomes (in Wisconsin, for example) have no idea what they are talking about. Ask them questions like, which reform, when?
Also, in the few places that have done bail reform like (DC; NY, NJ) the overwhelming evidence is that caging far fewer people for lacking cash improves safety. Here's the most rigorous study of the data from Houston, the third largest jurisdiction in US:
https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1441408000850341888
The stakes of ending cash bail and caging fewer human beings prior to trial are enormous. We are talking about millions of years of life lost; millions of preventable beatings, infections, traumas; millions of children not separated from parents. Learn about this issue.
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