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FREEDOM ISN’T FREE WHEN YOU’RE BLACK AND POOR  
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Robert Brown
February 8, 2025
Common Dreams [[link removed]]

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_ The unforgiving reality of cash bail transforms “innocent until
proven guilty” into “guilty until proven wealthy.” _

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When I was 17, I was charged with a crime I didn’t commit.

During an argument, I was arrested and wrongfully accused of
threatening someone with a firearm, which I hadn’t done. My bail was
set impossibly high, far beyond what I could afford, especially as a
father to a newborn son. Forced to wait for my day in court behind
bars, I came to a heartbreaking realization: If I or someone in my
family had been wealthy, I could have walked free. Instead, I was
denied my presumption of innocence and ripped from my family because I
couldn’t pay for my freedom.

The American criminal justice system, which promises equal justice
under the law, punishes poverty, tears families apart, and devastates
communities like mine.

Sadly, my story isn’t unique. It reflects a system that routinely
prioritizes wealth over justice, especially for Black Americans. As
someone who personally faced the burdens of cash bail and now works to
alleviate that burden for others through The Bail Project
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assistance and pretrial support to thousands of low-income people
every year—I firmly believe that we have two systems of justice: one
for the wealthy and one for everyone else.

This system incarcerates over 60%
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people arrested before trial simply because they can’t afford bail.
Safety, not wealth or race, should determine who is held or released
before trial. Yet, wealth often dictates freedom. Many accused face
nonviolent, low-level charges and pose no risk to public safety, but
the unforgiving reality of cash bail transforms “innocent until
proven guilty” into “guilty until proven wealthy.”

When someone is arrested, a court can impose a cash bail amount: a sum
of money required for their release before trial. If you have the
funds, you’re released from jail, no matter the circumstances. If
you don’t, you’re locked up. Sometimes for weeks, months, or even
years.

Judges tasked with setting bail often make these critical decisions in
less than five minutes, relying on limited information and implicit
biases that disproportionately affect Black defendants, during
hearings that rarely require evidence, and often proceed without legal
counsel for the defendants. As a result, Black defendants are
detained more often than white defendants facing the same charges
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average, courts impose bail amounts nearly $10,000 higher for Black
individuals
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their white counterparts.

This disparity has devastating consequences
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especially in communities of color. Being jailed before trial makes it
harder to fight your case, leading many to plead guilty, even if
they’re innocent, just to get out. It risks jobs, housing, physical
health, and child custody while exposing legally innocent people to
unsafe and traumatizing jail conditions.

Consider Christopher
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War veteran who was arrested for alleged possession of a controlled
substance. His bail was set at $1,000: an insurmountable sum for him.
Christopher was forced to wait in jail for six weeks before his case
was dismissed. During that time, he lost his job as a house painter
and his PTSD worsened. All of that suffering, and it was for nothing.

Then there’s Ashley
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eight months pregnant when a scheduling error led to her arrest for a
nonviolent misdemeanor. Unable to pay a $11,500 bail, Ashley spent
three weeks in a filthy, overcrowded jail cell, sleeping on the floor
without a mattress. She lost her job, her apartment, and was forced to
sleep in her car with her newborn daughter after giving birth.

We need a system that ensures fairness and protects safety for
everyone. We need a system where release is based on case-by-case
assessments of safety, not wealth.

Fortunately, alternatives to cash bail exist and work. Illinois became
the first state to completely eliminate cash bail in 2023, and judges
now determine who needs to be detained pretrial based on risk to
others, not money. This shift has kept communities safe
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reducing the number of people needlessly incarcerated pretrial.
Nationally, more than 30 cities have safely minimized the use of cash
bail, according to research from the Brennan Center for Justice
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This Black History Month, as we reflect on how far we’ve come and
how far we still have to go to achieve racial equality, let’s not
overlook the urgent need for bail reform. Ending cash bail is more
than public policy; it’s a moral imperative.

It’s time to put an end to cash bail and write a safer, fairer
future for everyone.

_Robert Brown is national director of operations at The Bail Project_

* bail
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* poverty
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* incarceration
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