Help Us End Bail Bonds!

The year, on Black Friday, the Blackout Collective will be calling out the institutions that profit from mass incarceration, that includes the bail industry. Join us, Blackout Collective and thousands of Color Of Change members to demand that money bail be put to an end now before it’s too late.

Right now, there are more than 730,000 people in jail simply because they cannot afford to pay bail. When a person is arrested, a judge decides whether or not they will be released prior to trial and if so, on what conditions. In recent years, money bail has become far more common, which means judges require people to pay in order to be released. People who are held in jail before trial are more likely to lose their jobs, lose custody of their children, accept an unjust plea bargain and be convicted.

We didn't get here by accident. In the past 20 years, the average bail amount and the number of for-profit bail bond companies have exploded due to the American Bail Coalition’s lobbying efforts within the American Legislative Exchange Council. Together, legislators and corporations have passed bills that exploit and extort resources from poor mostly Black folks.

People often think that money bail is dependent on a person’s flight risk or potential danger to society. However, in most cases, it’s not. Two-thirds of inmates in jail across the country are nonviolent, unconvicted people accused of petty crimes. They are only being jailed because they don’t have the disposable income to pay their bail fees. Basically, they are too poor to afford their FREEDOM.