The Good News: Denver Black Mamas Bail Out

Activists here in Denver raised more than $20,000 to bail out black women from jail in time for mother's day as part of the Black Mamas Bailout movement.

image from Denverite article

If you are from a civilized country, you may not know about yet another American cruelty and injustice on the poor: cash bail.

70% of people in jail have not been convicted of a crime: they just can't afford bail.

The United States is one of just two countries in the world that allow a for-profit bail industry (the other is the Philippines). (Source: https://www.thenation.com/article/america-is-waking-up-to-the-injustice-of-cash-bail/)

From https://nomoremoneybail.org:
"Everyday tens of thousands of people languish in jail simply because they cannot afford bail. In addition to the over $9 billion wasted to incarcerate people who have been convicted of no crime, pre-trial incarceration has catastrophic impacts on families and communities. Even a few days in jail can ruin a person’s life. They may lose their job, their family may lose housing and some even lose their children.

Since 1980, the number of incarcerated people has grown by 500%. Fed by a racist War on Drugs, that our current Attorney General Jeff Sessions is trying to resurrect, millions of people have been taken from their families.

Pre-trial incarceration has catastrophic impacts on our communities in particular. Black people are over two times more likely to be arrested and once arrested are twice as likely to be caged before trial. Our LBGTQ and gender nonconforming family are targeted and caged at even more alarming rates, and once in jail are significantly more likely to be sexually and physically abused. For instance, one in five transgender women have spent time in prison or jail and one in three of them reported being sexually assaulted while there."

On their first day of work,

"we were at the jails for over 17 hours; from 7:00am to past midnight we posted 11 bonds for 9 women. DJP + BLM organizers and legal volunteers were humbled to be able to personally welcome 2 women warmly as they rejoined us on the outside; as of midnight May 10, 2018-7 of the 9 women whose bonds we posted were still awaiting release, although bonds had been posted in some cases more than 12 hours earlier." (from http://www.blackbailout.org)

Last year activists raised over $6000 for this action, so this year was more than three times that amount!

image from blackbailout.org

I couldn't find any totals for how many people were freed this year, but it's possible that's because they are still fighting to get some people out, even though mother's day was last weekend.

We live in an unjust society, and I'm glad that some people are getting help in the immediate, and that society at large is beginning to realize how awful these systems are.

I'm curious if readers in other countries even knew this existed in the States, or did you read this article and think, "What the fuck?!!" We are NOT "the leaders of the free world" - we're a cruel and backward place with shiny PR.

That Red Fish your momma always warned you about

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