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Detroit
cash
bail
reforms
to
strike
at
racial
inequality
By
AARON
MORRISON
apnews.com
Michigan’s
largest
district
court
and bail
reform
advocates
have
agreed
to
settle a
federal
class-action
lawsuit
over
cash
bail
practices,
which
activists
say
routinely
and
unconstitutionally
jail
poor and
working-class
defendants
despite
evidence
of their
inability
to pay.
Both
sides
say the
reforms,
to be
announced
Tuesday,
strike
at
racial
inequality
in the
criminal
legal
system.
On any
given
day in
Detroit,
the
nation’s
Blackest
city,
nearly
three-quarters
of those
jailed
are
Black, a
proportion
much
higher
than
their
share of
the
population.
If
the
reforms
narrow
that
disparity,
it could
be a
model
for
court
systems
nationwide,
where
race and
wealth
are
significant
factors
in the
administration
of
justice,
advocates
say.
Detroit’s
36th
District
Court,
the
American
Civil
Liberties
Union
and The
Bail
Project,
a
nonprofit
that
pays
bail for
people
in need,
said in
interviews
ahead of
Tuesday’s
announcement
that the
status
quo
wreaks
unnecessary
havoc on
defendants’
jobs,
homes
and
families.
“This is
a
historic
agreement
that we
believe
can and
should
be a
template
for how
courts
around
the
country
can
adapt
their
bail
practices
to what
is
lawful,
constitutional
and
sensible,”
said
Phil
Mayor,
senior
staff
attorney
for the
Michigan
ACLU.
Chief
Judge
William
McConico
of the
36th
District
Court
said
settling
the
class-action
lawsuit,
filed in
2019
just
before
he
became
the
chief,
presented
an
opportunity
to show
that law
enforcement
and
activists
can work
together
to
change
the
criminal
legal
system.
“Other
African
American
cities
will be
able to
point to
what one
of the
largest
district
courts
in the
country
is doing
to
address
this
issue,”
said
McConico,
who is
Black.
“That’s
why it
is so
important
that
this is
starting
in a
major
Black
city,
that it
is not
being
rolled
out in a
suburban
city or
a small
court.”
The
reforms
do not
bar
judges
from
imposing
cash
bail,
especially
if
defendants
are
deemed a
flight
risk or
a danger
to the
public.
However,
all
Detroit
judges
and
magistrates
must say
on the
record
how
imposing
bail
would
protect
the
community
or
prevent
a
failure
to
appear.
Judges
must
also
make an
on-the-record
determination
as to
how much
a
defendant
can
afford
to pay.
The
parties
also
agreed
that any
defendant
who is
at 200%
of the
federal
poverty
level or
less is
to be
assumed
unable
to post
cash
bond.
According
to the
2022
federal
guidelines,
200% of
the
poverty
level is
annual
earnings
of
roughly
$27,000
for an
individual
and
$55,000
for a
family
of four.
“This
should
largely
eliminate
the
practice
of
imposing
what may
seem to
some
like
small
amounts
of cash
bail,
which
effectively
serve as
a jail
sentence
for
somebody
who
hasn’t
yet been
convicted
of a
crime,”
Mayor
said.
The
sides
also
agreed
to new
rules
stipulating
when and
what
triggers
a bail
redetermination
hearing,
if a
defendant’s
bail has
been set
but goes
unpaid.
The
hearing
would
allow
for a
bail
amount
to be
reduced
or
withdrawn
altogether
if it is
later
deemed
unaffordable.
The
reforms
in
Detroit
come as
some
states
and
local
jurisdictions
across
the U.S.
have
either
rolled
back or
are
considering
rollbacks
of bail
reforms
in
response
to a
pandemic-era
increase
in
crime.
From San
Francisco
to New
York
City and
cities
in
between,
rhetoric
around
the
uptick
in
violence
and
nuisance
crimes
has
slowed
political
momentum
despite
bipartisan
agreement
that
mass
incarceration
is
expensive
and has
no
proven
positive
effect
on
public
safety.
“We
are
still
moving
forward
in a
very
thoughtful
way, to
say that
the
presumption
of
innocence
matters,
that
mass
incarceration
of
pretrial
people
needs to
be
reversed,
and that
racial
disparities
at the
pretrial
stage
need to
be
addressed
in a
very
real
way,”
said
Twyla
Carter,
The Bail
Project’s
outgoing
national
legal
and
policy
director.
The
ACLU,
the
NAACP
Legal
Defense
and
Educational
Fund,
The Bail
Project
and the
law firm
Covington
&
Burling
LLP sued
the
chief
judge,
court
magistrates
and the
Wayne
County
sheriff
in the
U.S.
District
Court
for the
Eastern
District
of
Michigan
in 2019,
on
behalf
of seven
Black
plaintiffs.
The
plaintiffs
alleged
the only
reason
they
remained
in jail
was
because
they
couldn’t
afford
bail.
At
the time
of her
incarceration
in April
2019,
one
plaintiff,
Starmanie
Jackson,
an
impoverished
single
mother
of 2-
and
4-year-old
children,
had her
bail set
at $700
over
outstanding
traffic
tickets
and a
charge
alleging
domestic
violence.
Because
she
could
not
afford
to pay,
Jackson,
who had
never
been
arrested
before,
was
separated
from her
children
for the
first
time in
their
lives.
“I
was
devastated,”
said
Jackson,
27. “It
was
nerve
wracking,
scary
and
disappointing,
because
we
depend
on our
justice
system
to keep
us safe
and on
track.”
She
said her
family
couldn’t
locate
her for
two
days, as
jail
officials
struggled
to
confirm
where
she was
being
held. As
a result
of her
incarceration,
Jackson,
a
certified
nurse’s
assistant,
said she
lost a
new
nursing
home job
when she
didn’t
show up
for her
first
shift
and was
evicted
from her
apartment
after
she used
her rent
money to
help pay
her
bond.
The
domestic
violence
charge
was
ultimately
dropped
and
Jackson
never
served
another
day in
jail.
The
settlement
makes
for a
happy
ending
to what
ended up
being a
nightmare,
said
Jackson,
now a
mother
of four
children.
“I’m
ecstatic
because
I’m able
to help
people
to
overcome
some of
the
difficulties
in our
justice
system,
which is
already
jacked
up,” she
said.
As
part of
the
settlement,
Jackson
and the
other
plaintiffs
will
split a
payment
of
$14,000.
Lawyers
for the
plaintiffs
said the
amount
was
agreed
to with
the
knowledge
that the
court
would
also
spend
money to
track
bail and
pretrial
detention.
The
court
did not
admit
wrongdoing
as part
of the
settlement.
According
to a
2020
report
of the
Michigan
Joint
Task
Force on
Jail and
Pretrial
Incarceration,
between
2016 and
2018,
Black
men made
up 29%
of the
jail
admissions
in the
counties
the task
force
sampled,
even
though
they
were
just 6%
of the
resident
population
in those
counties.
Between
2018 and
2019 in
Wayne
County,
Black
people
represented
70% of
those
detained
in the
local
jail on
any
given
day,
even
though
they
were
only 39%
of the
resident
population.
Nationwide,
recent
studies
show
Black
defendants
make up
a
majority
of
people
in
pretrial
detention.
However,
the jail
incarceration
rate for
Black
people
had been
on the
decline
between
2008 and
2019,
according
to the
latest
federal
data.
Former
U.S.
Attorney
Gen.
Eric
Holder,
who is
senior
counsel
at
Covington
&
Burling,
commended
the
Detroit
district
court
for
reaching
the
agreement
on
reforms.
“This is
how our
criminal
justice
system
should
work,”
he said.
“It can,
and
should
be, a
model
for
other
jurisdictions
across
the
country.”
Ezekiel
Edwards,
vice
president
of
pretrial
criminal
justice
at
Arnold
Ventures,
a
philanthropic
organization
supporting
research
and
policy
work on
justice
issues,
said
bail
systems
in the
U.S.
have
become
more
reform-minded
over the
last
decade.
But the
policy
landscape
is still
a
patchwork,
he said.
“Cash
bail is
still
used in
most
jurisdictions
around
the
country
and
without
the
necessary
regulations
or
limitations,”
Edwards
said.
As
for
achieving
racial
justice
in
Detroit,
McConico
said
there
will be
a
racially
diverse
bar
association
and a
majority
Black
bench of
judges
and
magistrates
working
together
under
the new
administrative
policies
to
ensure
they
have a
chance
of
succeeding.
“It
won’t
just be
symbolic,”
the
chief
judge
said.
“There
will be
African
Americans
making a
change
on the
criminal
justice
system
that
disproportionately
impacts
African
Americans.”
____
Morrison
is a New
York
City-based
member
of the
AP’s
Race and
Ethnicity
team.
Follow
him on
Twitter:
https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison.
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