Rebecca Gill was out of
options. At 39 years old, she was arrested and though not convicted of a crime
and presumed innocent, confined to a jail cell. This happened because of a cash
bail requirement that she couldn’t afford. Her friends didn’t have extra money
to help, and she was unlikely to see a judge until she’d been in jail for two
full weeks.
Stuck in jail, she was in
jeopardy of losing her job and her driver’s license. Losing her license would result
in myriad consequences, such as preventing her from getting to work and making
it more difficult to take care of her son and mother.
Thankfully, the Nashville
Community Bail Fund paid
Rebecca’s bail, allowing her to keep her job, her license, and return to her
family. The Bail Fund’s work has alleviated
tremendous suffering on
the part of those incarcerated and their loved ones, reduced the length of time
in jail for their participants, improved outcomes, and saved taxpayer dollars.
But a local Nashville policy threatens the rights of people like Rebecca, and
sets a concerning precedent that could have implications for bail funds nationwide.
Today, the ACLU, Civil Rights
Corps, and the Choosing Justice Initiative are standing up to that policy.
Together, we are suing in federal court to challenge the constitutionality of the
rule and ensure that the Nashville Community Bail Fund is able to continue its
important work helping people like Rebecca.
Under the local rule, developed by the Davidson County Criminal
Court judges and clerk, anyone trying to post bail on behalf of a friend, loved
one, or community member must agree that the money posted is subject to
garnishment for any future debts assessed in the case. In other words, anyone
paying cash bail must agree that the defendant’s court costs, fines, fees, or
restitution can be deducted from their cash bail deposit.
In this manner, the county
and local government force people who are at their most vulnerable — stuck in
jail, and legally innocent — into an unconstitutional agreement. Furthermore,
by extracting this promise to pay court debts using the same money posted to
facilitate pretrial freedom, government officials ensure access to revenue by
taking a cut of the cash bail deposit.
Let’s say someone is arrested
for a crime and ordered to pay a $3,500 bond that they are unable to afford.
Their family and friends are then able to put that $3,500 together. Under local
policies in Davidson County, that money would only be accepted if the family
and friends posting the bond agreed that their money could be used to pay any
fines, fees, or costs assessed against their friend in the future. If they
don’t agree to this, their loved one remains in jail.
When the founders of our
country enshrined the concept of bail into our constitution, it was intended
to be a method of facilitating pretrial freedom and reasonably
incentivizing incarcerated people to return to court to face charges levied against
them. Using bail as ransom money or to generate revenue violates the core
tenets of a system of pretrial justice.
In many instances, the money
posted as bail doesn’t belong to the arrestee themselves, but is collected by
friends, family, and other community members. Using the pressure of jail to
force these parties to pay a loved one’s debts — lest they remain incarcerated
— is not only illegal, it’s unfair.
Local governments across the
country in places like Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Michigan, and Wisconsin
impermissibly use money bail to pay fines, fees, and other debts. These
garnishment practices have not been challenged in court in decades.
Bail garnishment policies
drive pretrial incarceration with a slurry of related negative consequences
both for the individual and the system. These consequences include job loss,
the inability to care for family members, exposure to violence in jail, a
higher likelihood of pleading guilty, increased long-term recidivism, increased
failures to appear in court, and waste of public funds on needless
incarceration.
Historically, when a
Nashville Community Bail Fund participant completed their case, their bail
money was refunded and returned to a rotating pool of cash so the fund could
assist the next person. Davidson County’s criminal court judges recently took
that option away without any logical reason. Without intervention, the Bail
Fund will eventually lose its entire rotating fund and be forced to close.
Since it began operating in 2016, the Bail Fund has freed more than 1,000 people who were incarcerated because they could not come up with $5,000 or less in exchange for their liberty. Several other such bail funds exist across the country. Davidson County’s policy poses a roadblock to these organizations’ crucial work.
The Nashville
Community Bail Fund and the ACLU envision a world in which pretrial detention is so rare that there is
no longer a need for charitable bail funds. Until that point, bail funds like
Nashville’s provide a crucial lifeline. If the fund is forced to close now,
thousands of Nashvillians will be left without assistance.
This senseless policy
violates the U.S. Constitution. We’re suing to ensure that the work of the
Nashville Community Bail Fund and other bail funds across the country are
allowed to continue, uninhibited by government officials’ attempts to turn cash
bail deposits into a revenue stream.