Donate to the National Bail Fund Network & Demand to #FreeThemAll via @bailfundnetwork

Detainee scrawled Help We Matter2 on window with hands in heart shape - Cook County JailRight now, hundreds of thousands of people in America are languishing in jail and immigrant detention centers – during a pandemic - because they are too poor to pay bail.

As of 2015, the median felony bail bond amount was $10,000 – the equivalent of 8 month’s income for a typical defendant, according to Prison Policy Initiative. It can take months, sometimes years, to have a trial and those in poverty spend that time in prison – not only experiencing the trauma of incarceration, but also losing any job they had outside and being torn away from children and loved ones who depend on them.

And now there is one more threat to face on the inside – the novel coronavirus. At the notorious Rikers Island prison in New York, at least 273 detainees have tested positive for the virus. An immigrant detention center in San Diego has 10 cases confirmed, with others experiencing symptoms but not being tested. Though the virus may have forced ICE to scale back its attacks on immigrant neighborhoods, thousands sit in prisons and detention camps because they lack the means to pay bail.

While Governors who have immense power to do something sit on their hands or make things worse, you can actually help set people free – possibly saving their lives - from the comfort of your home.

Make a donation of any amount today to The National Bail Fund Network, a listing of over sixty community bail and bond funds across the country. These community bail funds are freeing people by paying bail and bond and are also fighting to abolish the money bail system and pretrial detention.

Go to bit.ly/localbailfunds. There, you can donate directly to their COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund, or find specific pretrial and immigration bail funds by state in their directory. Your next step should be sharing this link as far and wide as you can. Check out the hashtag #FreeThemAll on Twitter for more information on how to help.

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So, if helping the most vulnerable among us during this pandemic is important to you, be sure to hit the share buttons to spread the word about The National Bail Fund Network via social media so that others in your network can spread the word too.

 

RECENT DIRECT ACTION:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TAKE ACTION

Donate to The National Bail Fund Network's COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund

Find other ways to help and get involved through the hashtag #FreeThemAll 

EDUCATE YOURSELF

Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2020 (Prison Policy Initiative)

Detaining the Poor (Prison Policy Initiative)

Rikers Reports Its First COVID-Related Prisoner Death (NY Mag: Intelligencer)

Andrew Cuomo Has Learned Nothing From the Coronavirus Catastrophe at Rikers (NY Mag: Intelligencer)

Fear Among Immigrant Detainees Spreads As Coronavirus Outbreaks Hit ICE Detention Centers (Buzzfeed News)

Immigrant detainees in Massachusetts are fighting to be released in the pandemic (Vox)

'Terrified of dying': Immigrants beg to be released from immigration detention as coronavirus spreads (USA Today)

 

Posted April 12, 2020; Researched and written by Best of the Left Communications Director, Amanda Hoffman

Hear the segment in the context of Best of the Left Edition #1347: Locked in a Petri Dish (Mass Pandemic Incarceration)

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