Decarceration Nation (with Josh and Joel) Episode 4 "Cash Bail"

The Decarceration Nation Podcast With Josh and Joel

Welcome to the fourth episode of our podcast "Decarceration Nation."

We focus on the need for serious reform of our systems of criminal justice and incarceration in the United States with an emphasis on bringing people back from prison ready to succeed.

We have been working our way from the very beginning of the criminal justice system through to the end. So far we have covered the failure of the prison paradigm (Episode 1 "MLK Day"), the problems created by legislators when they refuse to address violence in reform (Episode 2 "Dealing with Violence"), the place of the prosecutor in mass incarceration (Episode 3 Power of Prosecutors), and now the problem of Cash Bail.

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Notes From Episode Four "Cash Bail"

Explaining the problems with cash bail.

Midnight Run was a movie about a bail bondsman (Robert DiNero) hunting down a bail jumper (Charles Grodin) who was on the run from the mob.

Here is the full report from the Criminal Justice Policy Program at Harvard that we refer to throughout Episode 4.

Just Leadership USA is a New York-based Criminal Justice Reform organization. One of their major campaigns is the Close Rikers campaign. They are also now pushing bail reform  (synchronicity).

Here is a good synopsis of the Kalief Browder story. I mistakenly said in the podcast that Mr. Browder committed suicide in jail. He actually committed suicide after release (RIP Kalief Browder).

I made mention of Kalief Browder and plea bargaining. Here is some more context on his brave stand.

Here is a good synopsis of the tragic story of Sandra Bland's trip to jail in Texas. 

There are a LOT of things I could post about the Macomb County Jail. Here is the link to the Independent Report that was done on Macomb.  In addition, there have been a lot of recent deaths at the Macomb County Jail and 18 total deaths since 2012.

Here is the Princeton study on racial bias in bail determinations we refer to during the episode. I am not sure I picked the most explanatory clip from a really important study.

The article in The Nation that Joel referred to tells a pretty scary story about what is happening in Louisiana and around the nation (no pun intended) with cash bail.

When I talk about the research proving that bail makes us less safe, I am referring to research summarized and cited in the Criminal Justice Policy Project report cited above.

The Supreme Court Cases I referred to were:

Bearden v. Georgia
Williams v. Illinois
Tate v. Short

The article Joel referred to as being from the Associated Press was an AP Summary of this Pew Trusts article about proposed changes to bail around the country.

You can get a decent explanation of what we mean by Harm Reduction in this introductory piece explaining the elements of Harm Reduction.

Most of the solutions that we discuss are summarized in the articles cited above.

Okay, that is the notes. We respond to all polite comments. Thanks for reading!