Senator Sanders Introduces Bill to End Money Bail

[Donkees]

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON, July 25 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced legislation Wednesday to end money bail, which would prevent people from being locked up before trial solely because they cannot afford their bail. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) has introduced a companion bill in the House.

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and nearly a quarter of all people imprisoned on any given day, disproportionately black, Latinx, and Native American, are “unconvicted”—meaning they are sitting in jail waiting for a trial, plea bargain or conclusion to their case. Hundreds of thousands of the “unconvicted” population are in jail simply because they could not afford their bail.

In introducing his bill Sanders said: “Poverty is not a crime and hundreds of thousands of Americans, convicted of nothing, should not be in jail today because they cannot afford cash bail. In the year 2018, in the United States, we should not continue having a ‘debtor prison’ system. Our destructive and unjust cash bail process is part of our broken criminal justice system – and must be ended.”

"The money bail system is irrational and dangerous. People who are not at high risk but are poor remain incarcerated, while people who may be dangerous are set free if they have the funds. It’s maddening to see that those with money can buy their freedom while poor defendants languish behind bars while awaiting trial,” Lieu said. “I’m grateful Sen. Sanders is introducing a bill that moves to end our justice system’s reliance on money bail. I previously introduced legislation in the House that addresses this issue and I look forward to working with Senator Sanders. The money bail system warrants sustained outrage because America should never be a nation where freedom is based on cash on hand.”

https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-introduces-bill-to-end-money-bail

Link to tweet

[Voltaire2]

1. I'm sure somehow this will be bad.

Or ignored. Or something.

[stuffmatters]

2. The debtor prison/bail system is unjust,destructive AND super expensive to taxpayers

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread Donkees.

[George II]

4. "Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) has introduced a companion bill in the House"??

Lieu introduced his way back in January 2017, if anything THIS is a "companion bill" to Lieu's.

[murielm99]

6. The Southern Poverty Law Center

was on top of this long before Bernie jumped on Lieu's bandwagon:

https://www.splcenter.org/news/2017/03/14/alabama-town-agrees-settlement-stop-operating-debtors’-prison

https://www.splcenter.org/news/2018/04/26/splc-lawsuit-settlement-ends-debtors-prison-corinth-mississippi

[lapucelle]

5. The text of this "new" bill is remarkably similar (in fact close to identical)

to the text of the pending bill Ted Lieu introduced in February 2017, H.R.1437 - No Money Bail Act of 2017. (The similar text can be found in the attachment to the press release from the fiery independent's office. The text of his actual bill is not yet available.)

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1437

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/3271?r=2

Congressman Lieu's bill already has 33 Democratic co-sponsors, including original co-sponsor William Lacy Clay.

BS's press people might want to clarify the press release for accuracy. Lieu's bill is the original legislation. The as yet unavailable Senate version introduced to much fanfare yesterday (a year and a half after H.R.1437) is companion legislation.

Ted Lieu graciously tweeted his thanks for the support of his bill after yesterday's big announcement.

[George II]

7. So the original co-sponsor of Ted Lieu's legislation is the Congressman who Sanders...

...was campaigning against in Missouri last week?

[lapucelle]

8. Yes, indeed.

I'm not sure why anyone would have a problem with William Lacy Clay.

[ehrnst]

9. No cosponsors - no wonder... Kamala Harris and Rand Paul wrote this last YEAR

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/20/opinion/kamala-harris-and-rand-paul-lets-reform-bail.html

[lapucelle]

11. 7/20/2017: So Ted Lieu and Kamala Harris have been working on this since 2017.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1593/related-bills

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/4019

[ehrnst]

12. Why am I not surprised? (nt)

[ehrnst]

10. It's good to see that Hillary pulled him at least a little to the left - The Root's analysis

Bernie Sanders Takes on Unjust Cash Bail System, but Still Doesn't Make Direct Connection to Institutional Racism

As admirable as Sanders’ attempt is to correct a major flaw in the criminal injustice system, his dearth of racial analysis undermines his appreciation of how dire the cash bail system is. To be assessed a bail amount, you have to be arrested. As has been well-documented, black and Latino people are disproportionately profiled by law enforcement—especially in places like New York City that have long records of racially profiling black and Latino people under stop and frisk.

The U.S. Department of Justice discovered that the city of Ferguson, Mo., where Mike Brown was shot and killed by a police officer, targeted black residents with steep traffic fines that generated millions in revenue for the small town. Indeed, being poor exacerbates the situation because the victim cannot get out of it because they lack the money. But the main reason why they are in the situation in the first place is primarily because of racial profiling.

White people do not find themselves in the same position as black people when it comes to racial profiling. which leads to the inability to pay bail or fight back against unfair traffic fines or police stops.

Simply put: Racism is not a byproduct of being poor. Racism is a product of white supremacy and must be addressed specifically.

Sanders has been criticized—especially by this reporter—for not raising his IQ on institutional racism up to his well-developed understanding of economics. Moreover, one really cannot understand the economics of America without realizing that its genesis is predicated on white supremacy. There is a reason why the black unemployment rate has dragged behind that of whites since 1954.

https://www.theroot.com/bernie-sanders-takes-on-unjust-cash-bail-system-but-st-1827886869

[ehrnst]

13. The Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act of 2017

Harris, Paul Introduce Bill to Encourage States to Reform or Replace Unjust, Costly Money Bail System

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Sens. Kamala D. Harris (D-CA) and Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced a bipartisan bail reform bill – The Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act of 2017 - to encourage states to reform or replace the practice of money bail, the requirement that individuals awaiting trial remain in jail unless they pay for their release. Across the country, state and local governments continue to have ineffective money bail systems that force individuals to pay amounts set arbitrarily, without consideration for the ability to pay, or an accurate assessment of the person’s danger to the public or risk of not showing up to trial.

“Our justice system was designed with a promise: to treat all people equally,” said Senator Harris. “Yet more than 450,000 Americans sit in jail today awaiting trial and many of them cannot afford “money bail.” In our country, whether you stay in jail or not is wholly determined by whether you’re wealthy or not – and that’s wrong. We must come together to reform a bail system that is discriminatory, wasteful, and fails to keep our communities safe.”

“Americans should be able to expect fair and equal treatment under the law regardless of how much money is in their pockets or how many connections they have,” said Senator Paul. “By giving states greater freedom to undertake reforms specific to their needs, our legislation will help strengthen protections for minority and low-income defendants, reduce waste, and move our bail system toward more effective methods, such as individualized, risk-based assessments.”

Excessive money bail disproportionately affects communities of color, as studies have shown that African-American and Hispanic defendants are more likely to be detained pretrial than white defendants and less likely to be able to post money so they can be released. It also has an adverse effect on public safety.

The Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act of 2017:

Authorizes a $10 million grant over a three-year period to incentivize and encourage states to reform or replace the practice of money bail.

Sets forth principles to obtain grants, including:

Replacing money bail system with individualized, pretrial assessments with risk-based decision-making. The risk assessments must be regularly validated on a local population, and include objective, research-based, validated assessment tools that do not result in unwarranted disparities on the basis of any classification protected under Federal nondiscrimination laws or the nondiscrimination laws of the applicable State.

Providing for a presumption of release unless the judicial officer determines that such release would not result in the appearance of the person at trial or would endanger the safety of others in the community.

If pretrial release requires imposing conditions, it should be based on the least restrictive, non-financial conditions that a judicial officer determines is necessary.

Supervision of bail conditions should be based on evidence-based practices.

Appointment of counsel at the earliest possible stage of pretrial detention.

Instituting a system of data collection and reporting to show effectiveness of system improvements.

The bill further authorizes an additional $5 million over three years to the Bureau of Justice Statistics to implement a National Pretrial Reporting Program, which provides for data collection on the processing of defendants in State and municipal courts.

Requires an annual report to the Department of Justice that provides for transparency and accountability for these grant programs.

https://www.harris.senate.gov/news/press-releases/harris-paul-introduce-bill-to-encourage-states-to-reform-or-replace-unjust-costly-money-bail-system