You are correct. If someone can afford bail, they will likely bail out. If someone is not given bail by a judge, they will not be allowed to bail out or participate with Promise-they will stay in jail until the resolution of their case. If someone has been given a bail, but cannot afford to bail out, this is someone who is eligible to work with Promise. If the court agrees, they will be released from jail and returned to the community (their job, home, family, etc.) without posting bail. Promise will then help support them to 1. Comply with their court mandated obligations and 2. Connect them to services based on a needs assessment conducted by Promise staff. I hope this is clear. We will work to review the website and make sure that it is. Thank you!
There is a chart here that is helpful in understanding the total number of people who are impacted by different parts of the criminal justice system. Approx 70% of people in local jails are there for non-violent offenses, approx 45% of people in state prisons are there for non-violent offenses and approximately 94% of people in the federal system are there for non-violent offenses. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2018.html
Promise would not pay the cash bail. The goal would be that no bail is paid at all. We would work with the government to agree to release certain individuals back into the community without having to post bail. Promise would then remind them of their obligations so that they stay on track with any court mandated obligations and refer them to services based on the needs of each participant. As to who would be eligible-that would depend on the agreement with each county that we work with.
I can speak from experience and the experiences of many defense attorneys. Many of my clients spent time in jail and then the government decided not to file charges, or the charges were later dismissed, or they were acquitted of the charges at trial. This is is a good resource for additional information on the number of people impacted by the criminal justice system: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2018.html and this is a series on netflix that highlights some of these issues: https://www.netflix.com/title/80187052
Promise will be given all court mandated obligations for each participant. The Promise team will help monitor them against that plan. If we see that they are not meeting court obligations, we will work with participants to get them back on track and in compliance so that they are not returned to custody. That is our goal. To get people out of jail and help keep them out.
Some counties have pre-trial departments and some don't. We believe we can perform these services or enhance services that already exist. In either case, making the current system more efficient and effective.
Yes. Our initial target population are those individuals who are currently in jail pre-trial-meaning they have not been convicted of the crime for which they were arrested. Most of these people remain in jail because they cannot afford to bail out. We believe this is a critical population because they often have pressure to plead guilty to a crime they did not commit just to get out of jail. They are often then on probation, which can lead to a cycle of incarceration for probations violations-often that are very minor infractions.
Yes. Our system is based on the premise that people are "innocent until proven guilty" but in practice, people that have money can bail out of jail and people who don't, remain in jail. This is fundamentally unfair. While incarcerated, someone can loose their job, housing, and cause sever disruption to their family. Because of these pressures, people will often plead guilty to a crime just to get out of jail. And to your later point, we agree and we have spoken with potential clients who are also interested in increasing the number of people who are able to serve their sentences outside of physical jails.
Promise would make these programs more efficient by providing additional support to participants and having the technology take care of many of the routine, time consuming tasks that social workers or case managers currently do.
