Bail Reform

No One Should Be In Jail Because They’re Poor

July 2, 2026 Jeremy Cherson, In These Times. Organize! Bail Reform, History, Mass Incarceration, Poverty, Prison

It was a chilly spring day when Nicole, now a 31-year-old medical social worker in Tulsa, Oklahoma, opened an unsolicited letter from a criminal defense attorney. The letter informed her that she had been charged with a felony and might have a warrant for her arrest. Nicole had never had a run-in with the law. A single mother of three, she had spent her career helping others navigate the very systems she now found herself caught in. An eyewitness to a robbery had identified her as a suspect. Soon after, she was formally charged. A judge set her bail at $50,000.

Illinois Will Be The First State To Eliminate Cash Bail

December 27, 2022 Rebekah Barber, Scheer Post. Create! Bail Reform, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Illinois, Women

Springfield, Illinois - On January 1, Illinois will become the first state in the country to officially eliminate its cash bail system when the Pretrial Fairness Act goes into effect. Under the new system, a person will only be detained before trial if a judge determines that they pose a threat to others or have a likelihood of being a flight risk. The measure — part of a 2021 omnibus criminal justice reform bill — was the fruit of years of organizing and advocacy work, much of which was led by women in the state who understood that ending money bail is a gender issue. The cash bail system plays a role in the United States’ growing jail population. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, the nation’s jails hold more than 400,000 people awaiting trial, a number that has nearly quadrupled since the 1980s.

The Alternative To Cash Bail Is A Simple Reminder

September 8, 2022 Ramenda Cyrus, The American Prospect. Create! Bail Reform, Legal System, Mass Incarceration, Technology

Last March, the California Supreme Court ruled that low-income individuals were not to be subject to cash bail, stating that “conditioning freedom solely on whether an arrestee can afford bail is unconstitutional.” This came four months after a widely scrutinized bail reform law subject to a referendum was defeated by California voters in 2020. Other states have moved even further to eliminate cash bail, part of the growing national concern with how a de facto for-profit element of the criminal justice system jails and immiserates people by the millions, the vast majority of whom have not been convicted of a crime. An Illinois bill from 2021 eliminates cash bail starting in 2023.

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