INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
On any given day in the United States, more than 450,000 people are behind bars awaiting their constitutionally mandated fair trial
originally designed to incentivize people to show up for their court dates, but it has since evolved into a system that separates the
the United States is one of the greatest injustices in the criminal justice system, ACLU Deputy National Political Director Udi Ofer tells
For one, people of color are 25 percent more likely than white people to be denied the option of bail, according to a pre-trial study by Dr
And for the black people who are given the option to pay bail, the amount is 35 percent higher on average than bail for white men, according
to a 2010 study.The national felony bail median is $10,000
according to the ACLU and Color of Change.And if bail bond companies are out of reach, those who are sitting in jail awaiting trial are more
likely to be convicted of the crime they were charged with
The non-felony conviction rate rose from 50 percent to 92 percent for those jailed pre-trial, according to a study by the New York City
population has dropped 17.2 percent, and courts have imposed cash bail on just 33 defendants out of 33,400, according to the ACLU.The ACLU
itself is working on bail reform in 38 states, including California, where Ofer says he is optimistic reform will happen this year
Right now, a pre-trial release bill, Senate Bill 10, is up for consideration in the Assembly
The bill also advocates for counties to establish pre-trial services agencies to better determine if people are fit to be released.The bill,
introduced by Senators Bob Hertzberg and others, is backed by the ACLU and Essie Justice Group, an Oakland-based organization that advocates
are going into tremendous debt and are also beholden to an industry that has time and time again been cited and known to practice in quite
Earlier this month, Google banned ads for bail bonds services, which Clayton says is the largest step any corporation has taken on behalf of
people who have loved ones in jail
But while tech can help in some ways, Clayton has some concerns with additional for-profit entities entering the criminal justice
actual good in the criminal justice space
or get involved with getting incentivized to add on bells and whistles that look less like freedom for people but more revenue for
While the movies like to depict flight risks and people skipping town ahead of their court dates, failure to appear in court often comes
where the idea came to humanize the system a bit more, by enabling public defenders to more easily connect with their clients
Uptrust is two-way in nature and reminds people on behalf of the public defender about court dates
care of their clients can remind them via Uptrust to do things like ask for time off work or schedule child care.For the end-user, the
client, Uptrust is all text-based
For the public defenders, Uptrust offers a software solution that integrates into their case management systems.Since launching in the
works by operating within the confines of the system
Appolition, founded by Dr
Kortney Ryan Zieger, enables people to funnel their spare change into the National Bail Out fund
As of April, Appolition has facilitated over $130,000 to go toward bail relief
Ziegler was not available for comment for this story.Promise, on the other hand, aims to provide an alternative to the cash bail system
With Promise, case managers can monitor compliance with court orders and better keep tabs on people via the app
Instead of asking you to pay bail, the public defender could suggest a pre-trial release with Promise
