Reuniting Family Bail Fund

 https://www.bailfundmontco.org/

Vincent O’Grady and John Schatz are on the board of directors for the Montgomery County organization - Reuniting Family Bail Fund. Below is a brief introduction to this local organization and the work that they do. If you would like to learn more go to their website and talk to Vincent and John. Keep abreast of this issue through the news and updates from Vincent and John. Consider what can you do.

Reuniting Family Bail Fund

This organization “ is a volunteer-supported group of advocates that aims to mitigate the harms of the criminal legal system in Montgomery County, PA. We believe that Magisterial District Judges should honor the guidelines for cash bail that it should be a last resort and consider their ability to pay. Simply being poor is not a reason for someone to be held hostage in a cage until their hearing.  Also, alternatives to incarceration for those suffering from a mental health crisis, drug addiction and poverty should be priority.” Reuniting Family Bail Fund website - https://www.bailfundmontco.org/

The bail fund exists to push back against the judges who impose bail on people presumed to be poor, black, suffering from addiction, homelessness and trauma that have no community and are unrepresented. The Reuniting Family Bail Fund is freeing people from prisons, physically/mentally and exposing the illegal/racist practices of the criminal, juvenile and dependency courts in Montgomery County. Reuniting Family Bail Fund website - https://www.bailfundmontco.org/  section About Us

Use of bail for nonviolent crimes is not defensible. A recent summary of the issue by NBC news can be found here here .

Most women in jails are Black, single mothers or only incarcerated because they can’t afford to post bail. Of the more than 115,000 women in jails in the U.S., more than 60 percent haven’t been convicted of a crime, but are incarcerated while awaiting trial because they can’t make bail, according to the Sentencing Project. 

Forty-four percent of women in jail are Black, and 80 percent of women are single mothers or primary caregivers for their children, according to a 2016 report by Vera Institute of Justice.They were being held simply because they could not afford $500 bail, and incarceration for what is usually related to a behavioral health problem is immoral.
 
These disparities are among the many reasons why advocates say the cash bail system is long overdue for reform, if not abolishment.