The Bail Project combats mass incarceration by disrupting the money bail system - one person at a time. We restore the presumption of innocence, reunite families, and challenge a system that criminalizes race and poverty. Over the past 20 years, pretrial detention has accounted for nearly all jail growth across the U.S. Today in America, two people charged with exactly the same thing will experience different justice systems based on the size of their bank account and the color of their skin. For many people in jail, poverty is the only thing standing in the way of their freedom. The legal system is penalizing those who are living in poverty and further entrenching people into oppressive systems, jeopardizing their physical health, access to resources, and burdening them with many other forms of oppression.

We’re on a mission to end cash bail and create a more just, equitable, and humane pretrial system. Since launching in 2018, we’ve already posted bail for nearly 20,000 people in 30 locations! All the while, we track data and court appearance rates to show that cash bail is not serving its intended purpose. Our clients have a court appearance rate of about 90% even though they have no financial obligation to us. When we say we want to put ourselves out of business, we really mean it! Our track record demonstrates that money is not necessary to ensure people come back to court. Our clients have no obligation to us. The Bail Project Community Release with Support Model works. Our ultimate goal is to be a catalyst for long-term systemic reforms that make our intervention unnecessary.

Source: Nonprofit submitted responses

Goal One: Serving more than 40,000 people, averting two million pretrial jail days, in a portfolio of geographically, demographically, and politically diverse sites with varying momentum for statewide reform.

Goal Type: New program(s) based on observed changes in needs among our constituencies/communities served.

Goal Two: Proving our model produces positive results for our clients and for communities by high court appearance rate, fairer case outcomes without impacting overall public safety, and with cost savings.

Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.

Goal Three: Using data and stories, we will work at local, state, and national levels to advocate to end money bail practices with broad adoption of our model of community release with support.

Goal Type: This goal reflects our commitment to further our advocacy work for our organization and or cause area.

Describe an investment in leadership

The Bail Project continually invests in leadership development. Over the last six months, we have invested in a 7-part Managers Training for our Operations leadership focused on mastering supervision, developing a feedback culture, managing conflict and understanding trauma-informed leadership. We have also invested in a Train-the-Trainer program for 5 senior leaders that will enable them to conduct internal leadership development training for all staff in the organization.

This organization mobilizes for mission in the following ways:

• Strategic Partnerships

• Networks of Collective Impact Efforts

• Thought Leadership

• Raising Awareness

• Community Building

• Policy Advocacy

What are this organization’s external mobilizaton efforts?

The Bail Project consists of a Support Hub and a network of local staff advocates—Bail Disruptors and Client Advocates. Our staff is now more than 100 people strong. We advocate, collaborate, and partner locally and nationally. We conduct asset-mapping to provide robust client support at each site. Our clients’ case outcomes speak volumes. Nationally, about one in three of our clients have all their cases dismissed. Overall, of our clients whose cases have closed, about 90% are not required to spend any additional time in jail. We work with local and national media outlets and use social media to raise awareness for this work. We are expanding into jurisdictions with diverse demographics, sizes, and geographies to create powerful proof points to show that cash bail is harmful and unnecessary. We are expanding our reach in the South to provide further proof for our model. We will continue to advocate for replacing cash bail with broad adoption of Community Release with Support.

In advocating for bail reform, we constantly adapt on local, state, and national levels. Here are some examples: - Illinois passed the Pretrial Fairness Act, which will eliminate the use of cash bail in the state. Until this bill goes into effect in 2023, our team will continue doing bailouts in Chicago while working to shape what bail reform's implementation looks like, advocating for a more humane, equitable pretrial system. We will be piloting what Community Release with Support can do for people and communities after cash bail has been dismantled. - Launched in 2018 as the inaugural site of The Bail Project, the organization’s St. Louis City site served more than 3,000 low-income residents while working with the campaign to Close the Workhouse to advocate for closing the infamous jail and redirect public funding to social services. Finally, the decision was made to close the Workhouse jail at the end of 2020. The Bail Project continues to provide court notifications and support for existing clients. We will shift resources to fund the Freedom Community Center, a new organization founded by one of our former staff members. In February 2020, The Bail Project published “After Cash Bail: A Framework for Reimagining Pretrial Justice” (see AfterCashBail.org). This white paper outlines our vision for the policies that we want jurisdictions to adopt and implement instead of cash bail and offers guidelines for implementing meaningful bail reform. As part of our advocacy efforts to approach justice more humanely, we are also raising awareness for the health threats of COVID in jails and advocating for decreasing jail populations and improving pretrial systems.