Since its inception in May 2017, the #FreeBlackMamas program has spread to an impressive number of cities across the nation. According to program organizers, in slightly more than one year, over 14,000 people have donated to bring nearly 200 mothers home to their families and communities in the cities of Oakland, Los Angeles, St. Petersburg, Montgomery, Memphis, Durham, Atlanta, Houston, New York City, Little Rock, Charlottesville, Charlotte, Kinston, Birmingham, Baltimore, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Washington D.C..
“In California, most of us have the right to freedom before trial,” said UCLA Professor Kelly Lytle Hernandez, who was present at a Thursday press conference about Murphy’s release. “But that right comes at a price–money bail. In most cases, the price of freedom will never be refunded. Therefore, we are charging people for their constitutional right to freedom,” continued Hernandez, who is the lead researcher on UCLA’s Million Dollar Hoods Project, which maps how much is spent on incarceration per neighborhood in Los Angeles County. “It is time to rethink our money bail system.”
The reason behind women’s inability to be able to post a cash bond, according to a Vera Institute report, “is a result of the wide range of social barriers many women involved with the justice system face.” But that inability, says Vera, is also rooted in systemic income inequality.
According to the findings of Detaining the Poor, a 2016 study by the Prison Policy initiative, women who were unable to make bail had an annual median income of just $11,071, which was nearly one third lower than the annual median income of men who could not make bail.
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