Cash bail hurts communities of color most. What’s the solution?
| Forward this to a friend Subscribe to more newsletters |  | | [Photo illustration by ASHLEY DYE | Times and Shutterstock] | Cash bail disproportionately affects people of color. Some lawyers want change.
By Monique Welch | Mass incarceration is a longstanding issue in the United States. Many scholars and advocates cite cash bail, which is especially difficult for the poor to pay, as a problem.
My colleague Kavitha Surana recently reported that the U.S. incarceration rate has increased by more than 500 percent since 1970, with Blacks and Hispanics disproportionately represented. She examines the issue in her latest story on how lawyers are targeting cash bail in Florida.
How do we change it?
To answer this, I turned to Kavitha: | I asked criminal justice researchers that same question. Many see reforming cash bail as a key step to dismantling mass incarceration.
The system, they say, criminalizes poverty, bloats jail populations and gives prosecutors leverage over people who are presumed innocent.
“People who have money will get released, and people who don’t have money don’t get released — and there’s no other distinction between their cases,” Kenneth Nunn, a University of Florida law professor, told me.
The burden falls heaviest on communities of color. In Florida, about 40 percent of the jail population is Black, or more than twice the percentage of the state’s Black population.
For this story, I looked at how public defenders and lawyers with the ACLU are attacking unaffordable bails through the courts. They argue that high bail for a person who is too poor to pay effectively deprives them of their liberty without due process — a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
That argument recently helped free a Pinellas County protester accused of inciting a riot and threatening a police officer. A fast-food employee with no savings, he remained locked up for months because he couldn’t afford a $30,000 bail.
The thing that surprised me most in my reporting was hearing that some prosecutors agree with the ACLU’s argument, even though they still use high cash bails in some cases.
Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, who has tried to limit the use of cash bail through diversion programs and mostly eliminating its use for non-violent misdemeanors, was particularly candid.
“In cases where we think that somebody qualifies to be detained because they’re a threat to safety, sometimes we just ask for high bail — because we know that’s going to shortcut the detention hearing, and actually hold the person,” he told me.
He said doing things the “right way” and asking for pretrial detention in every case would require more resources — more first appearance courts, more judges with the time to do individualized analyses and more time for his prosecutors to prepare motions.
Meanwhile, the ACLU lawyers keep working to get a more sweeping decision from a higher court, believing it could force the system to operate more fairly in Florida.
It’s one step in a long road toward greater justice for all, they say, but other solutions are needed, too. | For further examples of how cash bail affects Florida’s criminal justice system, read Kavitha’s story.
Do you have any experiences you’d like to share? Send Kavitha an email at ksurana@tampabay.com. | | | | From the Times | “Everybody had a story”: William Blackshear, who recently died at 85, was the first Black city commissioner in Safety Harbor and helped start The Weekly Challenger newspaper. He also wrote vivid stories about his life. Blackshear’s family shared them with the Times.
Legislation for Black cemeteries: Five erased Black cemeteries have been found in the Tampa Bay area and there is an ongoing search for more. Now, Florida wants to create a task force to help find and protect such cemeteries. A bill that would do just that is headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis for his signature.
A digital Black history tour: St. Petersburg’s African American Heritage Trail has wanted to go digital for years, but a lack of funding stood in the way. Not anymore. See how to access the trail’s new online tour at your convenience.
Reaching immigrant communities: As Florida’s Hispanic population continues to grow, law enforcement agencies across Tampa Bay are expanding their outreach via social media. But the urgency is greatest in Hillsborough County, where the number of Hispanics is expected to increase by up to 7 percent by 2045, according to recent data. The real question for these communities is whether agencies do immigration enforcement. | | | | Beyond the Times | Recording a cop: Some instances of police misconduct that resulted in the deaths of Black citizens would not have come to the light if they weren’t caught on camera. But a Florida appeals court ruling in a Boynton Beach case upheld the arrest of one woman for taking video of police officers in public. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
Decades later, an apology: A Philadelphia museum secretly kept the remains of a Black child who was killed by a police bombing that razed a middle-class Black neighborhood more than 30 years ago. Rather than returning them to the victim’s family, they were shelved away and used in online college course videos. The revelation has reopened old wounds in the city. Now the University of Pennsylvania and its museum where the remains were stored are working to make it right. (The Washington Post)
HBCUs get boost in support: Some historically Black colleges and universities saw increased attention and donations following Vice President Kamala Harris’ inauguration and a year of racial reckoning after the death of George Floyd. Will it repair the underfunding and discriminatory treatment the schools have faced due to segregation and racism? In the Houston Chronicle’s Underfunded series, experts weigh in. (The Houston Chronicle)
A license to bike: Several U.S. cities have bicycle registration and licensing laws, which are often rarely known or enforced. But when they are, many bike and transportation justice advocates say they can be distorted by racial bias. An incident in New Jersey, where an officer confiscated bikes from a group of Black and Latino teenagers and arrested one of them, is the latest example. (Bloomberg)
Celebrating the AAPI community: May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Looking for ways to observe the occasion? Here’s a list of virtual events and series to get you started. (The Boston Globe)
Contact Monique Welch at mwelch@tampabay.com. Follow @mo_unique_. | | Did someone forward this newsletter to you? You can sign up to get Regarding Race in your own inbox next time. Subscribe for free here. | | | | |
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