![]() She said, “I don’t want to hear a sob story.” In that moment, I knew she had already made up her mind. As he then shuffled past his family in chains, the judge looked me in the eye. On the day of the bail hearing, the judge started speaking before my client had the chance to enter the courtroom. Monetizing Danger Is Impossible, by Joseph Gaylin Courts would be constructively helping people by offering resources and care-based programs as choices, not as a form of punishment and control. Doing so both creates material difficulties for charged people and tells them they don’t deserve freedom because they don’t adhere to the court’s idea of a law-abiding citizen. Pretrial bail conditions should not be used to punish people for their vulnerabilities. These conditions tell people that they can’t be free because of the difficulties they already have in their lives. Telling someone to get a job or find stable housing as a condition of their release reinforces the false narrative that freedom from pretrial detention should be conditioned on having a job or housing. ![]() I was reminded again that the system is set up to otherize people for the difficulties in their lives. ![]() ![]() The experience made me come to this conclusion: While bail can keep people incarcerated by literally making the price of freedom unaffordable, pretrial release conditions place insidious control on people’s lives. Yet, I could not shake the feeling that we, too, were imposing more burdens on clients for their release, when our job was to remind the court that anyone, regardless of income, race, housing, or mental health status, rightfully deserves freedom. I was told these factors - being employed, attending an educational or rehabilitative program, and having a stable housing situation - were persuasive to judges, so I understood why public defenders were saying these things to and about our clients. “You’re gonna need to get a job and stay in school.” “Has he been approved for a rehab program?” “Do you have a place to stay? Can you find one?” These were things I heard in court as a student in the Pay or Stay Bail Practicum at UCLA Law, where I helped fight for the pretrial release of people who could not afford often exorbitant cash bail. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |