Sam Bankman Fried released on bail. The system works! 😃 Because bail is not designed to keep guilty or dangerous people off the streets and in jail. Bail is designed to keep *poor* people in jail.
"Jeffrey Dahmer, enters the room without cuffs?!
How the hell do we get stuffed
In the back of a cell on the isle
Ain't it wild?
What's 'criminal?'"
- Chuck D, Public Enemy, "Hazy Shade of Criminal" 1992
"The isle" is Riker's Island. Most people on Rikers are there for pre-trial detention.
In fact, the more dangerous a criminal is (connected to organized crime, extreme wealth, etc), the more likely they are to be able to afford bail.
🙂🙃
The people least likely to afford bail, are poor people, with no connections to criminal organizations, but high probability of being falsely arrested and charged. If you guessed "poor Black people," give yourself 10 points!
1. The US locks up more people than any other nation.
2. Most of these people are innocent. I didn't say "not guilty." I said "innocent." As in, under normal circumstances, there would not even be enough evidence to even charge these people with a crime. The only reason they're charged, is because the DA knows that they can't afford bail, and people that can't afford bail will confess to crimes that they didn't do. Happens every day.
3. People caught in this trap are disproportionately Black
Imagine you are a Black man with a wife and 2 kids living in the Bronx. You and your wife both earn minimum wage. You've never been arrested, never committed a crime, don't do drugs, never been in a gang.
One day, you're arrested and falsely accused of a crime. You're sent to Rikers. There is definitive proof that you were somewhere else at the time of the crime. DA says they're going to charge you. You can't afford bail, or an attorney.
You'll be in jail for up to *2 years* prior to trial.
Rikers is a dangerous place. I don't care how much UFC you think you watch, or how tough you think you are. You are not ready.
DA says if you plead guilty, they will let you out today with 5 years probation. If you maintain your innocence, they will charge you with 5 years.
Even if you beat the case, you will be in jail for 2 years. You will lose your minimum wage job. Your wife may lose custody of the kids, if she fails to "maintain a home." Which puts your kids in child protective services.
During that 2 years, your credit score will become ruined. Your wife will have to "put money on your books" meaning pay exorbitant fees to send you money, so that you can buy snacks. She may even have to pay exorbitant fees just to send you emails.
And she'll have to find a way to pay for that on her single minimum wage salary.
Or... plead guilty to something you didn't do, and go home today.
Real people make this choice every day.
On the other hand, in a system where bail is illegal, you will be charged, and told that your court date is two years from now, and that you must appear on that court date, and that if you don't appear you will be fined or arrested... but that you can go home today.
You will leave jail, go to collect the evidence of your innocence, and give it to your public defender. Your public defender will tell the DA "You will lose in 2 years. Give up now." The DA will say "True.🫤" And *drop the case*.🤯
Important point:
Bail reform doesn't "Release dangerous criminals onto the streets."
Bail is supposedly designed to make sure people show up to court on that date in the future.
There is a completely different dimension on "risk to the public." Whether there is bail or not, a judge can decide whether or not a defendant should be in pre-trial detention or not.
If there's strong evidence of community danger, witness tampering, etc, judges can require pretrial detention.
A lot of white Americans don't value bail reform, because they can't conceive of themselves being charged with a crime they didn't do, when there is literally zero evidence. That seems like a vanishingly rare occurrence.
A lot of Black Americans do support bail reform, because they know that being falsely accused of a crime is a very real possibility for them. Happens a lot.
Both groups of people are correct in their risk assessment. 🙂🙃
There's a whole genre of videos that are "White person loses iPhone, accuses closest Black person of stealing it, finds it moments later in their purse or pocket, and either apologizes or doubles down on the racism."
These don't all have happy or funny endings. Many of these stories in NYC, wind up at Rikers.
If the falsely accused Black person takes off running, the lack of iPhone on them is explained as "They threw it while running!"
Staying, remaining calm, and filming, is a safer option.
@mekkaokereke would it be ok to share this to another platform?
This is Fucking Good!
Ppl need to hear it like THAT!
if so, do you know easiest way?
*Kinda tech illiterate 🙃
❤️🔥
Xes
@mekkaokereke might be good to share with folks that many workplaces that do matching donations support multiple bail relief programs. Philly Bail Fund is among them, and it encourages me to donate as much as I can knowing the company is contributing likewise to help a local group that is so unfortunately needed because Bail Reform is needed!
@rawfysh @mekkaokereke @matt_dragon
I can't tell you which legislators (all of them?), but I can suggest a way to grade how they're doing: BJS CSAT advanced query, offender characteristics, year-end population, race, your state, most recent year available (2018 for NJ). Compare the numbers to Census quick facts.
https://csat.bjs.ojp.gov/advanced-query
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/NJ/PST045221
Also, keep pushing the government to track and report this data
------------------------
#racism #inequality #NewJersey #police
@mekkaokereke A version of the story linked below was on NPR yesterday. It was unbelievable to me—though it shouldn't be.
"KRAIG LEWIS WAS living in Connecticut and was nine credits away from his MBA when the neighborhood he had spent his life trying to get away from came back to haunt him."
https://theintercept.com/2019/04/25/bronx-120-report-mass-gang-prosecution-rico/
Sickening.
@mekkaokereke
I really don't think white conservatives are thinking of through that much.
They are told that "crime is legal now" and that crime is no longer being punished in those horrible blue states. This furthers the narrative in their heads about how great red states are compared to blue states.
White Democrats don't want to contradict white Republicans anytime they get into a racist frenzy because they want to seem more "centrist" and boast about "reaching across the aisle."
No one who hasn't been convicted should be in jail, IMO. Accusations are not convictions. Arrests are not convictions. Due process should be followed before anyone is incarcerated.
Do you even realize how insanely many people never come in front of a judge in the USA before doing jail time.
This is totally out of whack 😡
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plea_bargaining_in_the_United_States
Plea bargaining in the United States is very common; the vast majority of criminal cases in the United States are settled by plea bargain rather than by a jury trial.
They have also been increasing in frequency—they rose from 84% of federal cases in 1984 to 94% by 2001.
Yes, it's crazy.
@mekkaokereke It's really easy for White people to trust in a system which has not wronged them in an appreciable way.
A fish does not realize the water it swims in until it is taken out of the water.
Isn't there the presumption of innocence until one is judged guilty.
Another factor working against anyone accused is the plea bargain system.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plea_bargaining_in_the_United_States
And when you decide to go in front of a judge we will make sure your imprisonment is 3 times longer if the verdict turns against you. Now you are 'free' to choose a deal.
@mekkaokereke this would be my only point of disagreement, colonizers don't support bail reform because they approve of the system as it works now.
"Supporting" bail reform also isn't the same as implementing it either.
but this thread is 💯
@mekkaokereke On the bird app I've been following three outstanding public defenders and vocal #bailreform advocates: Olayemi Olurin, Scott Hechinger and Alec Karakatsanis. Highly recommend for people wanting to find really great info on the subject to learn and share.
Olayemi and Alec were recently on The Breakfast Club.
@mekkaokereke I thought John Oliver did a great job covering bail reform not too long ago, but I don't have anything to compare this to.
@mekkaokereke Missing from this conversation is the perception that people released w/out bail are criminals who are out on the street criming again within hours.
This perception is not 100% right or wrong. It only takes anecdotal stories in the news to reinforce perception of crime out of control. Add a visible homeless populations and the police blaming the revolving door/ DA unwillingness to prosecute and you get an uphill battle eliminating bail.
@jonahstein
Exactly. I could release 100K innocent people on bail, and only 1 of them commits another crime. Doesn't matter. They can make a news story of that 1 case.
Any person that commits another crime while on bail is framed not as "Should the judge have denied release here?" Or "Why wasn't this clearly disturbed person provided access to shelter, mental healthcare, and their medication?" but instead as "See! Bail reform is bad! Put the other 99,999 poor people back in jail!"
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