Thousands of women are being held in jail without having been convicted, but simply because they can’t afford bail. Advocates are pushing for reform.
Gina Clayton-Johnson, founder and executive director of the Essie Justice Group, a leader of the yearly Black Mama Bailouts in California
For years, advocates have criticized cash bail for the myriad ways it harms women, communities of color, and people with the fewest resources, pushing for reforms, including abolishing it altogether. Last September, Illinois became the first state to eliminate cash bail, with the Pretrial Fairness Act.
Although cash bail is often cited as a necessity for public safety, there is no link between bail reform and an increase in crime. Advocates instead point to the harms that pretrial detention causes. Keeping women behind bars because they can’t afford to post bail creates a harmful ripple effect that extends well beyond just the individual person. Eighty percent of women in jail — where people are held in pretrial detention — are mothers.
If their pretrial detention is long enough, women may not only lose their children to foster care temporarily, they could lose their parental rights altogether. And if they are pregnant, “they face the possibility of giving birth behind bars,” said West, where they won’t be able to get adequate prenatal care, if they receive any at all.
Jails are also especially dangerous places for women. “Being held in jail for a week is harmful to anyone, but women face unique challenges,” said Brandon Buskey, director of the ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project. “Jails often fail to provide adequate health care, and, for women with mental health or substance abuse issues, it can have devastating consequences. Jail is designed to punish, not to provide optimum care pretrial. People often decompensate in jail.
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