Georgia Cash Bail Bill Won't Make Communities Safer

The Georgia State Capitol constructing in Atlanta. | Supply: SETH HERALD / Getty

Last 12 months, the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia (ACLU-GA.) issued a report on overcrowding within the Fulton County jail. We discovered that on Oct. 26, 2023, practically 400 folks had been in jail just because they didn’t have the cash to pay bail. That is the story throughout Georgia: Individuals charged with minor offenses and who might even be wrongfully accused are jailed awaiting trial as a result of they don’t have any cash. Or, after they do have cash, it’s wanted for meals, lease or different payments for his or her households. This apply doesn’t make communities safer.

Final week, the Georgia Senate took an enormous step backward towards yearslong prison justice reform efforts within the state with the passage of Senate Invoice 63 (SB 63), which expands the requirement for money bail to extra low-level offenses together with prison trespass, failure to seem for visitors citations and even possessing greater than an oz. of marijuana, which is authorized in practically half of america. The best racial disparities are present in these lower-level offenses. For instance, 90% of the folks arrested for easy possession of marijuana in Atlanta had been Black, earlier than the ACLU and different advocates acquired the penalty modified to a ticketed offense.

MORE: How The Money Bail System Can Actually Kill You

On Tuesday, the invoice goes earlier than the Georgia Home. If it passes there, it can then go to the governor to signal into regulation.

The ACLU-GA. opposes this merciless invoice, recognizing it can affect essentially the most weak communities, particularly poorer Georgians, Black folks and different folks of coloration who don’t at all times have cash to put up money bail. Whereas folks with cash get launched to go house to their households and jobs, lower-income folks sit in jail for a similar offenses. As a substitute of returning to their communities, these folks being held are compelled to determine between pleading responsible (even when they’re harmless) and ready months or years for his or her day in courtroom. We all know that people who’re held as a result of they can’t afford a bond plead responsible 25% greater than those that can afford to bail out and obtain harsher punishments after they do. In Georgia’s jails, 51% of the inhabitants is Black, whereas simply 30% of the state’s general inhabitants is Black, in accordance with a examine by the Vera Institute.

A troubling side of SB 63 is a provision that bars people, church buildings, nonprofit group teams and others in any jurisdiction from bonding out greater than three folks per 12 months. State Sen. Kim Jackson, who can also be an Episcopal priest of a church that serves homeless folks in Atlanta, stated that “this invoice will restrict our capacity to assist parishioners who expertise homelessness and endure with psychological well being points. They’re usually arrested on trespassing prices whereas attempting to outlive outside with out primary wants.”

The ACLU’s Marketing campaign for Sensible Justice asserts that many bail practices are unconstitutional as a result of they violate folks’s rights to due course of and equal safety underneath the Fourteenth Modification, the prohibition towards extreme bail discovered within the Eighth Modification and the fitting to a speedy trial assured by the Sixth Modification.

If this invoice turns into regulation, it can add to Georgia’s extraordinarily excessive incarceration price. Georgia “locks up a better share of its folks than any democratic nation on earth,” in accordance with the Jail Coverage Initiative. Annually at the least 236,000 individuals are booked into Georgia’s native jails. A humanitarian disaster on the Fulton County Jail, the place 10 folks have died up to now 12 months, has introduced an investigation by the Division of Justice. Whereas proponents of this invoice deny that overcrowding is a matter on the Fulton jail, we all know that overcrowding has solely lately gone down due to work to determine and launch those that had been being held as a result of they may not afford bail. SB 63 removes the one reduction out there for many individuals trapped in Georgia’s jails. We’re very involved for a way a lot worse circumstances on the Fulton jail can be if SB 63 is allowed to turn into regulation.

The ACLU-GA.’s opposition to this invoice continues a seven-year push for prison justice reform that’s largely centered on lowering jail populations. It’s unjust that some individuals are punished based mostly on an arrest – not a conviction – and should sit in jail for months or years usually in inhumane circumstances as a result of they can’t afford to pay money bail earlier than their courtroom date.

The ACLU-GA. encourages you to hitch us in opposing this invoice that turns again the state’s progress on money bail reform by telling state lawmakers to vote no on Senate Invoice 63. Contact your legislator right here.

Fallon McClure is the Deputy Director for Coverage & Advocacy on the ACLU of Georgia. She leads its coverage and advocacy work within the First Modification, privateness and prison justice areas.